Speaking at the SCBA farewell function on Friday, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai said he firmly stands by his view that the “creamy layer” must be excluded from reservation benefits for Scheduled Castes, despite criticism from within his own community.

Defending his the judgment allowing sub-classification of Scheduled Castes, where he held the need for state policy to exclude the creamy layer from the SC/ST benefits, CJI Gavai said he faced “severe criticism” from the Dalit community for that decision.

He expressed that "I have been very severely criticised regarding that judgment in my community"

However, he went on to explain that during the penning of the said decision he posed a question to himself- " Whether a son of a tribal, in a tribal area, can be made to compete with m

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