'Can A Tribal's Son Compete With My Son?' : CJI Gavai Defends Judgment To Exclude Creamy Layer From SC/ST Reservations

Speaking at the SCBA farewell function on Friday, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai said he firmly stands by his view that the “creamy layer” must be excluded from reservation benefits for Scheduled Castes, despite criticism from within his own community.

Defending his the judgment allowing sub-classification of Scheduled Castes, where he held the need for state policy to exclude the creamy layer from the SC/ST benefits, CJI Gavai said he faced “severe criticism” from the Dalit community for that decision.

He expressed that "I have been very severely criticised regarding that judgment in my community" 

However, he went on to explain that during the penning of the said decision he posed a question to himself- " Whether a son of a tribal, in a tribal area, can be made to compete with my son, who, because of his father's achievements, is entitled to the best of the schooling, would it be equality in the real sense?" 

He further recalled that during that decision, one of his law clerks, who was a son of an officer in Maharashtra and also from the Scheduled Caste community, told him that he would not take the benefits of the SC category, as he was privileged enough.

The CJI said, "That one boy understood what politicians refuse to understand" 

He also recalled his fondness for the famous speech delivered by Dr BR Ambedkar on November 25, 1949- the official last speech before the formal enactment of the Constitution of India. The CJI reiterated a word of caution sounded by Ambedkar : 

" The warning that he had given in his speech on 25th November 1949, that unless we remove the socio-economic inequalities and take a step forward or march towards achieving social and economic justice, the edifice of democracy would fall like a house of cards." 

He further emphasised that the true essence of equality is not treating everyone equally but applying equity as a means to make society a more equal place. He said : 

"Article 14 believes in equality, but equality doesn't mean equal treatment to all. Ambedkar said that if we give equal treatment to all, rather than reducing, it will increase inequality - therefore, the special treatment for those lagging behind is what the equality concept stands for." 

The CJI also expressed his gratitude for his fellow judges, his wife and children and 18 law clerks in his journey so far. He added that after retirement, he would like to work for the betterment of the tribals in his district in Maharashtra. 

He concluded his speech by quoting John Wesley : 

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can as long as you can." 

CJI Designate- Justice Surya Kant also addressed the event. He lauded CJI Gavai's empathetic approach towards each case. He said : 

"For him, every dispute represented someone's hope, someone's struggle, someone's search for justice. It was this sensitivity that shaped his reasoning, enriched his perspective and lent his decisions a moral clarity that touched everyone who read them. But more than his judgments, it is the tone that he sets which defines his legacy- mainly gentle, inclusive and deeply humane." 

He added how much he admired Justice Gavai's trait of  naturally being a peacemaker in cases of differences : 

"If I were to choose one defining quality, it would be his instinctive ability to heal divides between differing perspectives, adversarial expectations and occasionally between competing constitutional values. He believed that institutions grow through dialogue, empathy, not through rigidity or distance." 

Honouring the legacy of CJI Gavai, Justice Kant concluded with a shayari : 

"Ruqsat ke waqt bhi chodd jaate hain kuch nishaan,

Ruqsat ke waqt bhi chodd jaate hain kuch nishaan,

Kuch log kadam se nahi, asoolon se pehchane jaate hain." 

(Even during farewell, some people leave lasting impressions; they are not known by merely their steps, but by their principles)

Attorney General R Venkataramani, Senior Advocate and SCBA President Vikas Singh, and several Supreme Court judges were also present.

Justice Gavai, the second CJI from the Scheduled Caste community after Justice KG Balakrishnan, is also the first Buddhist judge to hold the office. Elevated to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019, he served as CJI for a little over six months.