An organisation that defends Dalit and tribal rights on Saturday demanded that Parliament enact a law overruling the recent Supreme Court judgment that allows sub-categorisation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the exclusion of a creamy layer from reservation benefits.

At a news conference here, the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations alleged the government had not fought the case sincerely enough to protect the rights of the SCs and STs.

Various SC and ST organisations have called for a nationwide "agitation" on August 21 against the seven-judge verdict.

Ashok Bharti, chairperson of the Confederation, accused the Centre of trying to create divisions among Dalits. He underlined that the Centre had not revealed before the apex court employee data broken up along individual castes.

Such data would have provided a clearer picture of the representation of each caste in the central bureaucracy, removing the need for guesswork about the possible overrepresentation and underrepresentation of individual castes, he said.

The Union cabinet has decided not to implement the creamy layer exclusion but Bharti called it mere "playing to the gallery" in the absence of a promised legislation.

At a news conference last week, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said: "The well-thought-through decision of the cabinet is that the NDA government is committed to the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar. According to the Constitution, there is no provision for creamy layer in reservation for SCs and STs. The cabinet's opinion is to stick to constitutional provisions."

However, the Supreme Court judgment also allows the states to sub-categorise SCs and STs and exclude a creamy layer, making a central law overruling the verdict the lone safeguard against its implementation.

Besides, Bharti said, Vaishnaw was silent on the sub-categorisation of SCs, which can be done even without excluding a creamy layer.

"The government has not come out clearly on whether the existing policy of treating the SCs as a homogenous group will continue. If so, what actions are being taken was not clarified. A mere statement that the government stands with the Constitution is just playing to the gallery," he said.

Bharti said that SC representation in the central government’s Group A posts was just 13.21 per cent in 2022-23 – seven decades after the implementation of reservations -- despite a 15 per cent quota.

Bharti appealed to Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs to participate peacefully in the nationwide agitation of August 21.