Now Reading: SC reserves order on Centre’s plea for 2-year OBC rule delay
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SC reserves order on Centre’s plea for 2-year OBC rule delay
The Story in Brief
The Supreme Court on Thursday, 24 September, reserved its order on the Centre's plea seeking a two-year window to implement the March 11 judgment on OBC creamy layer classification. The government argued that retrospective application would cause 'complete administrative chaos', unsettling seniority and appointments of candidates not party to the litigation. It sought a 'limited prospective overruling' under Article 142 of the Constitution.
The bench of Justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan questioned why the Centre waited six months before filing its application in late August. The Centre clarified it is not seeking to dilute the judgment, but needs time to conduct an 'effective equivalence exercise' for posts in PSUs and private employment. Senior advocate P Wilson, representing the candidates, objected, saying DoPT had failed to comply with court directions and could create supernumerary posts instead.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Coverage across all seven outlets is almost uniformly straight reporting from the court hearing. The Hindu Businessline and LiveLaw provide the most procedural detail, naming Article 142 and the 1993 Office Memorandum, while The New Indian Express and Times Now are slightly shorter, omitting the petitioner’s objection. Hindustan Times and Times of India foreground the government’s fiscal argument, that retrospective application could affect CSE allocations since 2012, a detail others mention but do not lead with. NDTV is the briefest, a wire-summary. The near-uniformity means the divergence that matters is between the government’s stated need for time and the bench’s pointed query about why the Centre waited six months. No outlet criticises either side. The court has reserved its order, leaving the timeline question open.
Coverage: 7 sources, 7 neutral
Sources (7): newindianexpress.com (neutral report), hindustantimes.com (neutral report), ndtv.com (neutral report), thehindubusinessline.com (neutral report), timesofindia.indiatimes.com (neutral report), timesnownews.com (neutral report), livelaw.in (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 7 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.
Update, 30 September 2026: this story now draws on 7 sources.
