The Supreme Court on Thursday raised its objection to providing reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) besides Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in elections to panchayats and municipal bodies, without having adequate data on OBCs and the intended beneficiaries.

A five-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, examining the Constitutional validity of the 73rd and 74th amendments, sought to know from the Government’s counsel how the scheme could be carried forward in the absence of data for OBCs and without excluding the creamy layer. These amendments provide for reservation for backward classes and women in addition to the SCs and STs for the local bodies’ election.

Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium referred to the Mandal Commission report to prove the existence of backward classes which he said had been recognised by the apex court in the Indra Sawhney (Mandal case) and Ashoka Thakur (OBC quota in educational institution) judgments.

However, the Bench observed that if reservation was extended without excluding the creamy layer, it would mean that the scheme was caste-based.