SYNOPSIS FOR DISSERTATION

DEVENDRA SINGH
22LL.M.09
INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE

TITLE: - Creamy Layer in the Reservation Policy: A Critical Study .

Statement of Problem

Social equality means all members of a society have completely equal treatment,
opportunity and access to resources. But that is not the exact position because there are
many grounds on which people are treated unequally, it would be better to say that they
are separated on certain things, such as differentiations between genders, races, religious
groups, or income that give some people more opportunities than others. This is different
than socialism, where everyone has approximately the same amount of resources. Instead,
true social equality means that no matter what society members have or who they are,
they are treated equally and have equal opportunities. But, to some extent it is not
possible because, in the society there are certain weaker sections, which required some
special treatment.

The idea of social equality is often intimately tied to concepts of egalitarianism in both of
its forms i.e. socialism and equality with certain separation. This concept either
represents the sense, from a political standpoint, that all people deserve equal rights and
treatment, or it is a movement that proposes a society should specifically direct its
resources toward promoting equality of wealth. The latter stance is more of a socialistic
approach, and the former is something adopted by many countries. It’s argued that the
two definitions are related, because in so many societies, wealth confers additional
power, and without addressing income inequities, there can be no true social equality.
True equality is a matter of legal opportunity.1 More specifically, legal equality
presupposes that civil government may not be a respecter of persons. By way of contrast,
1
Legal equality is secured by the existing law of the country e.g. Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
the modern notion of equality is based on factual similarity. It presupposes that civil
authority may sometimes infringe upon individual liberties because all rights are subject
to "balancing," depending on the circumstances.2 In other words, the modern concept of
equality rejects the idea of an unalienable right to equal opportunity and substitutes it
with a civil right of equal position.

So the idea of social equality is the subject to the legal equality. And legal equality is a
matter of the civil government, which is based on the concept to secure the social justice.
The idea of the equality is based on the legal equality but it is the social equality, which
disturb the basic concept of legal equality i.e. the every person is equal before the law.
Social justice is concerned with equal justice, not just in the courts, but also in all aspects
of society. This concept demands that people have equal rights and opportunities;
everyone, from the poorest person on the margins of society to the wealthiest deserves an
even playing field.

The problem of getting social justice is that in the society various form of discriminations
are in existence and due to that, with the various kind of legislation in existence to avoid
the social equality, people are not getting the social justice. What is the difficulty in
achieving the social justice? This is the main concern of social equality.

In India many efforts have been made to bring the social equality in the society and to
empower the classes, which are socially backward and economically poor. In the
Constitution of India these people are given protection and special treatment under
Article 15 and 16. These principles as a whole known as reservation policy. The policy of
reservation was adopted for 15 years initially later on this policy is used to extend
regularly by the Indian government after each 15 years. The second major aspect, which
has been introduced in the reservation policy, is the concept of creamy layer. According
to this policy a limit is mentioned to exclude the people who have a good income and all
the facilities to access by which they can be equally treated in the society and have all the
means to be equal with the so called forward classes. This policy is introduced to spread
2
Article 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution provide for the special treatment for the scheduled caste and
scheduled tribes and women respectively for the betterment of them.
the benefit of the reservation policy to the people who are really in need and have less
economic facilities to get the access to such facilities which are necessary for the
development of the human as whole.

At present this concept of creamy layer is applicable to the original backward classes. In
my research work I want to find out the feasibility of the applicability of the concept of
creamy layer in other reserved classes like scheduled tribes and scheduled castes.

Focus of Study

Since social equality is not possible without getting the social justice and social justice is
a matter of social behavior of the people and the various provisions ensuring the legal
equality. In my paper the main focus would be on the attitude of the society, the existing
legal positions securing the equality and the reservation policy. And I want to find out
how far this policy need a change in the present problem of not reaching the benefit of
the reservation to the needy people because the people who have got the benefit in past
only the family of that person is getting the benefit of the reservation policy generation
after generation.

Scope of Study

Scope of my study will be the Indian position on social equality and legal equality and
social justice with a reference to the world positions on social equality concept. And the
major emphasis will be on the reservation policy in India and the scope of introduction of
new changes to this concept.

Overview of Literature

The existing literatures are on the social justice, what is the concept of social justice, how
it is in the society and what are the methods of securing social justice and how far our
legislations are in concern with the social justice.
The book written by Dube and Bore, Neeta ‘Social Justice and Women In India” deals
with the position of women in India and what are the reasons behind the backwardness of
the women and how the legal position in India is endeavoring to enhance the condition of
the women and how far the legal position is sufficient or not to secure the betterment of
the Indian women.

The book written by Ackerman, Bruce A “Social justice in the liberal State” deals with
the concept of social justice its evolution and how far it has changed the concept of the
State. The State concept earlier was that it is the lassieze faire means the State was
mainly focused on the economic growth of the country. But with the passage of the time
and the growing concept of the human rights the State concept shifted to the welfare.
Now the State is welfare oriented and it has the responsibility of the State to ensure that
each people must get the opportunity of the development and the people should not be
discriminated on any ground.

The book written by Kooijmas, P.H “ Doctrine of the legal equality of States: an inquiry
into the foundation of international law” deals with the international standards of
equality before the law.

Chapters (tentative)

1. Introduction
2. Concept of Equality
I. Social equality
II. Socialism
III. Legal equality
3. Social Justice
4. Principle of Affirmative Action
5. Conclusion
Method of Research

The method of research will be doctrinal.

Bibliography
Books:-

1. Reddy,P. and Jagmohan, Social justice and constitution, Waltore: Andhra

University Press, 1976.
2. Dube, M.P (ed) and Bore, Neeta (ed), Social justice and women in India, Delhi, S.
Prakashan, 1999.
3. Harvey, David, Social justice and the city, London; Edward Arnold, 1973
4. Ackerman, Bruce A, Social justice in the liberal State, New York: Yale
University: 1980
5. Baldwin, Raymond Whittier, Social justice, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1966
 6. Hoult, Thomas Ford, Social justice and its enemies: a normative approach to
social problems, New York: John Witey
7. Arrow, Kenneth J, Social choice and justice, Mass Belknap Harvad,1983
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Paul, 1976
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important judgements) Jaipur: Rawat Publication, 1998
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15. Kooijmans, P.H., Doctrine of the legal equality of States: an inquiry into the
foundation of international law, Sythoff, 1964
16. Dreikars, Redolf, Social Equality: the challenge of today , Chicago: Alfred Adler
Institute, 1971

Articles:-

1. Pappu, Rekha, “Rethinking legal justice for women” Economic and Political
Weekly, 32, 1997 pp1048-52
2. Benjamin, N, “Ambedkars quest for the right of social equality: An
interpretation” Social Action, 51, 2001 (Apr-Jun) pp131-50
3. Mallik, Basant Kumar, “Ambedkar and his movement for social equality”
Mainstream, 29 (25), 1991, pp4-6,34
4. Shahubuddin, Syed, “ Universal Reservation: high road to social justice”,
Mainstream, 39 (33) 2001 pp23-4
5. Iyer, V.R. Krishna, “ Constitutionally inscribed social justice and operationally
opposite agenda in practice” Mainstream, 40 (28) 2002 pp 7-11
6. Nayak, S.R. “ Rule of Law and goals of justice” Andhra law Times, 2002(2) J 9-
16p
7. Singh, M.P. “ Merit, desert and affirmative action” Alligarh Law Journal, 7,
1981: 91-7
8. Vishweshwariah, S.S., “ Trade Unions as viable investments for promoting
Human Rights and Social Justice” JILI, 43, 2001 (Jul-Sep) 336-57
9. Iyer, V.R. Krishna, “ Judicial process and delivery of social justice” Journal of
the Institute of Human Rights, 4, 2001 (Jun) pp1-8
10. Karia, N “Law, social justice and social changes” All India Reporter, 88, 2001
(Jun) 189-92pp