Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 2: The virtual refusal by most backward class and minority groups to accept the Supreme Court verdict, asking Kerala to exclude creamy layer from the purview of reservation, has complicated the task of the Narendran Commission to identify the creamy layer among the backward communities.The commission was appointed by the state government and granted a period of one month, which ends on February 15, to forward its recommendations. The main task before the commission is to fix an income ceiling to identify the creamy layer.The Joseph Commission had, in its report submitted three years ago, fixed Rs 1.5 lakh as the upper income ceiling to avail of reservation benefits. The new commission has been asked to revise this ceiling, taking into consideration the prevailing socio-economic and educational status of backward communities.The commission had invited suggestions from most organisations of backward communities and minorities to help it in its task. But rather than presentingtheir cases with documentary support for the quantum of increase in the income ceiling, almost all organisations have taken the stand that there is no creamy layer among backward communities in Kerala and that the commission should seek exemption for the state from enforcing the criterion.However, it is not within the powers of the commission or the state government to recommend exemption. Till the Supreme Court verdict is annulled by a constitutional amendment, the state government is bound to implement the apex court order in letter and spirit. Until such a constitutional amendment comes into force, the organisations can, at best, plead to fix the income ceiling as high as the ground realities may justify, so that a vast section of the community would still remain outside the creamy layer bracket.Rather than making such a plea as expected of them by the commission, the organisations are going beyond their brief by making demands outside the jurisdiction of the commission. The demand by the Muslimorganisations and SNDP Yogam, that the commission should recommend special/direct recruitment for vacancies in the state services under the quotas reserved for their communities, too falls under this category.It confuses the terms of reference of the one-man commission with that of a second multi-member commission proposed to be appointed by the government, with Justice Narendran as its head, to study the extent of reservation enjoyed by various eligible communities in state government services. The second commission is yet to be constituted and the demands relating to special recruitment are to be addressed to this commission.These organisations have also demanded that the present commission should make its final recommendations only after studying what the second commission has to say on the actual representation enjoyed by backward communities in state government services. This again is a far-fetched demand, because the SC has allowed only three months' time to revise the income ceiling, ifnecessary, of which one-and-a-half months have already elapsed. If the present commission is to make its recommendations only after the report of the second commission is available, the state government would be clearly overstepping the time-limit stipulated by the SC, thereby committing contempt of court. If the organisations do not co-operate with the commission by declining to furnish data relating to the income status of the communities they represent, it would be constrained to fall back on the statistics provided by government sources.Meanwhile, the prevailing confusion is compounded by the stand adopted by the Nair Service Society. Some backward class organisations have taken the view that the Narendran Commission has no statutory status as it is appointed by an executive order and not under the Commission of Inquiries Act., the NSS maintains that as per the 1992 Supreme Court verdict, the state government is expected to appoint a permanent commission to regularly monitor the income status ofbackward communities and to exclude those who fall within the creamy layer bracket from time to time, from the ambit of reservation.
