The Supreme Court will hear a petition to exclude well-off members, or the creamy layer, of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from the benefits of reservation. Members earning a certain income should be subject to a means test, a test conducted to examine the value of an individual's assets claiming the reservation in order to determine eligibility. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra will hear the petition alleging that the rich among the SC/STs are “robbing away” benefits, while the deserving and impoverished continue to “ bite the dust.” It is the failure to spread benefits to the poor that has led to social unrest, Naxalite movements and perennial poverty, it says. This is the first time a petition has been filed urging the Supreme Court to introduce the strata concept creamy for SCs/STs. 1992, a nine-judge bench of the tribunal in the Indra Sawhney case (Mandal case), upheld caste-based reservation for OBCs as valid. The court also held that the creamy layer of OBCs does not should get reservation benefits.The ruling, however, limited the creamy layer exclusion to OBCs and not SCs/STs Now, the petition filed by Samta Andolan Samiti, which represents the poor sections of SCs/STs in Rajasthan , wants the creamy layer of SC/ST to be excluded from the benefits. The petition, filed by advocate Shobhit Tiwari, refers to the Constitution Bench's 2006 ruling in the M. Nagaraj case that "means test should be taken into consideration to exclude the creamy layer from the reserve group". The upper/rich and advanced sections of SCs/STs snatch away the maximum benefit and 95% of the members of these communities are at a disadvantage. The rich among the SC/STs are siphoning off the reservation benefits given to them by the state government as well as the central government. The benefits of the reservation policy do not trickle down to the people who actually need it,” the petition claims. This failure to distribute the benefits linked to quotas to the poorest of the poor ensures that “the weak always remain weak and the fortunate strata consume the entire cake”. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The petition argues that no class or caste has remained homogeneously backward over time. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get Custom Essay The creamy and evolved layer of SC/STs benefits from reservations and puts people in dire need, in scarcity. The petition argues that only the backward section of the castes included in the SC/ST list are constitutionally entitled to the benefits of reservation.