Supreme Court to decide if new OBC creamy layer criteria apply retrospectively to CSE 2025

Gist The Supreme Court is setting up a Special Bench to hear the Centre's plea on whether its March 2026 judgment redefining the OBC creamy layer criteria should apply retrospectively to the Civil Services Examination CSE 2025 . The dispute emerged because the final examination results were declared just five days before the judicial ruling, raising questions about whether a concluded recruitment cycle must be reopened. For aspirants, this highlights a critical intersection of administrative law and reservation policy, specifically demonstrating how the "rules of the game" doctrine protects ongoing selection processes from abrupt legal or policy shifts. Background The "creamy layer" concept excludes economically, socially, and educationally advanced members of the Other Backward Classes OBC from reservation benefits. The original 1993 Official Memorandum OM excluded salary and agricultural income from the wealth test used to determine this status. However, a Department of Personnel and Training DoPT clarification in 2004 dictated that the salary income of Public Sector Undertaking PSU and private-sector employees would be counted, a rule applied rigorously to CSE candidates since 2015 . This led to the…