Sometimes it may be wise to seek operational convenience at the cost of precision in identifying a desirable set of characteristics in a set of individuals. The Supreme Court’s ruling that income, or at least income alone, cannot be the sole criterion for determining who is to be included in the ‘creamy layer’ among other backward classes for the purposes of deciding the beneficiaries of reservation is a case in point. While court rulings dating back to 1992 have stated that certain individuals, such as those holding constitutional posts or in Class A government service, would be counted as belonging to the creamy layer, the Haryana state government had defined income as the determining criterion. The contention is that the reservation benefits should not go to OBC members who have already attained economic, social and educational advancement. Attaining advancement would presumably mean integration with the upper echelons of Indian society. The relatively advantaged could be identified by income, wealth, educational attainment, political influence, economic power and social mobility. All these, and perhaps more, provide the empowerment needed for integration with the elite.

The Supreme Court has, quite correctly, indicated that income alone cannot satisfactorily determine the social status of a person. There ought to be a vector of indices that can better identify a person’s social standing and, hence, the need for further special opportunities in the form of reservations. The real problem lies elsewhere. How does one accurately measure wealth, income from different sources, educational attainment in terms of skills and abilities, intelligence, and human capital? Even if these could be measured accurately, it would be a mammoth task to gather and process the relevant information. Finally, even if a composite index could indeed be computed, how would the cut-off mark be agreed upon? This is where the degree of accuracy may have to be sacrificed for getting an imprecise, but operationally convenient, criterion. In this context, gross income from all sources, as reported to the tax authority, is easily observable. It can be considered a good estimate of empowerment. Or it could even be worth the while to get rid of the concept of creamy layer completely and prioritize merit. The philosophy of reservations leading to better integration does not depend on the beneficiaries as much as it depends on the elites’ willingness to induct new members into the club for exclusive privileges.