Bihar reiterates parents’ salaries, agricultural income cannot be counted for OBC creamy layer
An order dated September 1 reiterated that, while determining creamy-layer status for Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates in the State, income from salaries and income from agricultural land are not to be counted toward the prescribed income ceiling.
The order restates the long-standing 1993 central government framework for identifying the OBC creamy layer, under which only "other" (non-salary, non-agricultural) income of parents is aggregated and tested against the ceiling.
The order does not explicitly cite the Supreme Court's March 2026 ruling in Union of India v. Rohith Nathan, even though that judgment dealt directly with disputes over how the income test should be applied to salaried parents.
The clarification is relevant for OBC candidates applying for non-creamy-layer (NCL) certificates used in government recruitment and admissions, where officials have at times wrongly clubbed salary income into the ceiling calculation.
The Creamy Layer Principle in OBC Reservation
The "creamy layer" concept excludes socially advanced members of Other Backward Classes from reservation benefits under Article 16(4), so that quota benefits reach the genuinely backward. It was introduced by the Supreme Court's nine-judge bench ruling in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992), which upheld 27% central government reservation for OBCs (as recommended by the Mandal Commission) while capping total reservation at 50% and mandating exclusion of the creamy layer from OBC quota benefits.
Key Details
- Indra Sawhney (16 November 1992) is a 9-judge bench decision; it upheld Article 16(4) reservation for socially and educationally backward classes and read in the creamy-layer exclusion as a constitutional requirement, not a legislative choice.
- The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) operationalised the principle through an Office Memorandum in 1993, listing categories (constitutional post-holders, Group A/B officers, certain professionals, and an income/wealth test for others) that place a family in the creamy layer.
- The income ceiling under the "other income" test has been revised periodically: ₹1 lakh (1993) → ₹2.5 lakh (2004) → ₹4.5 lakh (2008) → ₹6 lakh (2013) → ₹8 lakh (2017), and it remains the applicable threshold as of 2026.
- Reservation applies only to initial appointments, not promotions, per the same judgment (later qualified by the 77th Constitutional Amendment, 1995, for SC/ST promotions).
The Bihar order concerns exactly this income/wealth test limb of the 1993 DoPT criteria — it clarifies that salary and agricultural income fall outside the ceiling calculation, so only other sources of parental income are counted.
The Income Test: What Counts as "Income" for Creamy Layer
The 1993 DoPT criteria explicitly exclude income from salaries and income from agricultural land when computing the parental income used to determine creamy-layer status; only income from other sources (business, professional practice, etc.), averaged over a specified period, is counted against the ceiling. This distinction protects salaried government/private employees and farming families from being wrongly pushed into the creamy layer merely because gross family income (including salary) crosses the ceiling.
Key Details
- The exclusion of salary and agricultural income from the income test dates to the original 1993 DoPT Office Memorandum and has been retained in every subsequent revision.
- In Union of India v. Rohith Nathan (Supreme Court, 13 March 2026), the Court held that creamy-layer status cannot be determined on income/salary alone — the "status and category" of the parent's post is a co-equal factor, and treating candidates unequally based on salary in organisations not equated with government service was held to violate the equality guarantee under Article 14.
- The case arose after a candidate who secured a rank in the Civil Services Examination 2012 under the OBC category was denied the benefit because a parent's private-sector salary exceeded the then income ceiling.
The State order reaffirms the salary/agricultural-income exclusion administratively, but does not reference the Rohith Nathan ruling or its additional holding that a parent's post/status (not salary figures alone) must also be weighed — a gap that could still cause inconsistent certificate decisions at the field level.
- Current OBC creamy-layer "other income" ceiling: ₹8 lakh per annum (revised 2017; unchanged as of 2026).
- Income ceiling revision timeline: ₹1 lakh (1993) → ₹2.5 lakh (2004) → ₹4.5 lakh (2008) → ₹6 lakh (2013) → ₹8 lakh (2017).
- Indra Sawhney v. Union of India: decided 16 November 1992, 9-judge bench; upheld 27% OBC reservation and 50% overall reservation ceiling.
- Union of India v. Rohith Nathan: Supreme Court judgment dated 13 March 2026; held creamy-layer status cannot rest solely on parental salary.
- Bihar's clarificatory order on the exclusion of salary and agricultural income from the creamy-layer income test is dated 1 September 2026.