A Congress MP has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the difficulties faced by candidates belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in joining government service even after clearing the civil services exams.

Lok Sabha member B. Manickam Tagore wrote to Modi on September 15 highlighting the hassles faced by the non-creamy layer (NCL) candidates among the OBCs whose parents work in public sector undertakings (PSUs) in state governments. These candidates do not get appointment letters even after passing the civil services exams, Tagore said.

In 2016 after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) declared the results, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the ministry of personnel took the decision to include salary while calculating gross income for determination of the creamy layer for children of employees of PSUs. Earlier, the UPSC used to accept the equivalence certificates for OBC NCL issued by PSUs and state governments.

The OBCs started getting 27 per cent reservation in central government jobs from 1993 following a Supreme Court judgment which directed the government to introduce the creamy layer to exclude the advanced sections from quota benefits.

A government committee in 1993 suggested that all persons holding constitutional posts and entering Class-A posts before turning 40 are to be automatically included in the creamy layer. It wanted similar equivalence to be fixed for PSU staff, but this proposal is yet to be implemented in all PSUs and also in universities.

For others, the office memorandum (OM) of 1993 prescribed an income/ wealth test criteria to determine the creamy layer. The threshold is now Rs 8 lakh per annum per family. However, salary and agriculture income cannot be considered as part of the gross income of the person, the OM said. The DoPT issued a clarification in 2004 suggesting salary can be counted under gross income.

However, since 2016, the UPSC has been including earnings from salary while counting the gross income of PSU staff to determine the creamy layer for their children, citing the lack of equivalence.

As a result, several successful candidates whose parents are working in PSUs in the states, at universities and in similar institutions have been left in the lurch.

In his letter, Tagore said that the government's interpretation of the OM of 1993 has been inconsistent.

"The inconsistency disproportionately affects candidates whose parents are employed in PSUs, public sector banks and other public sector institutions. The prevailing interpretation seems to favour those employed in central government and state government roles, thereby disadvantaging candidates from other sectors," Tagore wrote in his letter to the Prime Minister.

Tagore demanded the formulation of a clear policy for acceptance of equivalence certificates issued by state governments for employees of state PSUs and other institutions. A fair interpretation of income criteria for the OBC NCL should be enforced, he said.

"The current situation has caused undue distress to OBC candidates who have earned their positions through merit but are being unjustly denied (jobs) due to procedural ambiguities," he wrote.

Shashank Ratnoo, a Supreme Court advocate, said three high courts had set aside the DoPT’s 2004 clarificatory letter that said that salary can be included as part of income while arriving at the creamy layer. However, the DoPT has challenged the high court judgments in the Supreme Court and filed an affidavit to defend its 2004 clarification. In case of reservation for Economically Weaker Sections, the government filed an affidavit stating that salary and agriculture income are not included in computing the creamy layer for OBCs.