The Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are granted a 27% reservation in central government jobs and admissions to higher educational institutions. While the Central List of OBCs contains over 2,600 communities, a deep-seated concern has emerged that reservation benefits are highly concentrated, with only a small number of affluent or dominant caste groups securing the vast majority of opportunities.

Sub-categorisation is the proposed remedy to this imbalance. It involves dividing the castes within the broader OBC category into smaller, structured subgroups. The goal is to allocate specific portioned shares (quotas within the 27% quota) to ensure an equitable distribution of representation, preventing stronger, well-organised OBC groups from monopolising affirmative action benefits

Constitutional Basis

Article 15(4) & 15(5): Empower the State to make special provisions (such as reservations in admissions to educational institutions, including private ones) for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs) of citizens.
Article 16(4): Permits reservation in government appointments or posts in favor of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the public services.
Article 340: Grants the President the authority to appoint a Commission (such as the Kalelkar, Mandal, or G. Rohini Commissions) to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes and recommend measures for their advancement.
Articles 338B & 342A: Article 338B provides constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).
- Article 342A specifies that while the President notifies a central list of SEBCs for central government purposes, the states retain the sovereign power to prepare and maintain their own separate state-level lists of backward classes

Rohini Commission

The Commission to examine the sub-categorisation of OBCs was constituted on 2 October 2017 under Article 340.
The Commission submitted its final report to the President in July 2023. The report has not yet been made public.
Terms of Reference
- Examine the inequitable distribution of benefits among OBCs listed in the Central List.
- Propose a scientific approach and parameters for sub-categorisation within OBCs.
- Identify and classify the respective castes or communities into their respective sub-categories.
- Study the entries in the Central List of OBCs and recommend corrections for repetitions, ambiguities, inconsistencies, and errors in spelling or transcription.

According to the consultation paper prepared by the Justice G. Rohini Commission on sub-categorisation of OBCs:

97% of Central OBC reservation benefits in government jobs and educational admissions were secured by less than 25% of OBC castes.
983 OBC communities, constituting around 37% of the communities in the Central OBC List, received no reservation benefit—neither a government job nor an educational seat.
Another 994 OBC communities together received only 2.68% of the total reservation benefits.
Merely 10 OBC communities secured approximately 24.95% of the reserved jobs and admissions.

Share of OBC Reservation

Number of OBC sub-castes	Percentage of benefit availed
10	24.95
38	25.04
102	25
506	22.32
994	2.68
983	0
Total: 2,633	100

The findings were based on:
- Around 1.3 lakh appointments made under the Central OBC quota during the preceding five years
- OBC admissions made during the preceding three years in Central institutions such as IITs, IIMs, NITs, AIIMS and Central universities
Data also reveals that the share of several states in OBC quotas is much higher than their share in the population of India — there are many states with much lower share in benefits than their share in the population.

Arguments in Favour of Sub-Categorisation

Unequal Distribution of Benefits
- Reservation benefits are disproportionately concentrated among a limited number of relatively advanced OBC communities.
Benefits the Most Backward
- Dedicated sub-quotas can improve access for extremely backward, nomadic, denotified, occupational and other poorly represented communities.
Different Degrees of Backwardness
- OBCs are not a homogeneous category; communities within it experience widely different levels of social, educational and occupational disadvantage.
Preventing Monopolisation:
- Sub-categorisation can prevent numerically dominant or better-organised communities from repeatedly securing most reserved seats and posts.
Correcting Inadequate Representation
- Several communities remain poorly represented in higher education and public services despite their inclusion in the OBC list.
Ensuring Substantive Equality
- Treating unequally placed OBC communities identically may perpetuate internal inequality. Differential allocation can provide genuinely equal opportunities.
Improving Policy Targeting
- Community-wise classification can enable scholarships, skill programmes and educational support to be directed towards groups facing the greatest disadvantage.
Strengthening the Legitimacy of Reservation
- A more equitable distribution of benefits can reduce dissatisfaction among excluded OBC communities and increase confidence in the reservation system.
Realising Constitutional Social Justice
- Sub-categorisation advances the objectives of Articles 14, 15(4), 16(4) and 46 by ensuring that affirmative action reaches the most disadvantaged sections.
Moving from Formal Inclusion to Actual Benefit
- Merely including a community in the OBC list has limited value if it remains unable to secure reserved seats and posts. Sub-categorisation seeks to translate recognition into effective representation.
Successful State-Level Precedents
- Many states have successfully implemented subcategorization models. For instance:
Bihar: Splitting backward classes into Annexure I (Extremely Backward Classes / EBCs ) and Annexure II (OBCs)

Arguments Against / Key Challenges

Inadequate Data
- Reliable community-wise data on population, education, employment and receipt of reservation benefits remain incomplete.
- India has not conducted a comprehensive, published caste-based enumeration since 1931. Designing scientific sub-quotas without updated population figures risks relying on stale, inaccurate estimates
Political Manipulation
- Governments may allocate sub-quotas according to electoral influence rather than objective backwardness.
Fragmentation of OBC Identity
- Division into multiple sub-groups may weaken broader OBC solidarity and increase conflict among communities.
- Dividing the 27% quota into minor fragments can weaken the collective bargaining power of the OBCs, converting affirmative action into transactional “proportional bargaining”
Resistance from Existing Beneficiaries
- Communities currently receiving a larger share may oppose any redistribution that reduces their access.
- Political Backlash & Agrarian Unrest: Dominant landowning OBCs (such as Jats in Haryana or Marathas in Maharashtra) wield enormous electoral power. Any policy that reduces their share of reserved posts will invite fierce agitations and electoral punishment
Backwardness is Multidimensional
- A community may be educationally backward but politically influential, or economically weak but socially dominant, complicating its placement.
Administrative Complexity
- Separate sub-lists, rosters, cut-offs and community-wise data would make implementation more complicated.
Does Not Address Root Causes
- Reallocation of the quota cannot by itself correct poor schooling, lack of awareness, geographical isolation etc
Strict Judicial Scrutiny
- In Pattali Makkal Katchi (2022), the Supreme Court struck down Tamil Nadu’s 10.5% internal reservation for the Vanniyar community because it lacked contemporaneous, scientific data. Sub-classification will fail legal tests if not backed by rigorous state-commissioned empirical surveys

Relevant Judgments

In Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992), the Supreme Court held that there is no constitutional bar to classifying OBCs into “backward” and “more backward” classes
In State of Punjab v Davinder Singh, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of sub-classification in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories.

National Commission for Backward Classes (3 Tier OBC Classification)

The National Commission for Backward Classes (2015) suggested that the unitary list of OBCs be divided into ‘Extremely Backward Classes’ (EBC), ‘More Backward Classes’ (MBC) and ‘Backward Classes’ (BC). The third category would comprise the most advanced sections.
- The EBCs would comprise the most disadvantaged communities: aboriginal tribes, denotified tribes, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, groups whose traditional occupation was begging/pig-rearing, snake-charming, religious mendicants, agricultural labourers and boatmen among others.
- Since these communities have the weakest educational, social and financial standards, clubbing them in one category with an assured slice of quota would ensure equitable competition contrary to the present system in which they have to contend with strong communities like Yadavs and Kurmis for Mandal reservations.

Way Forward

Release the Rohini Commission Report
- The report, methodology and supporting data should be placed in the public domain to enable informed debate and scrutiny.
Build a Reliable Database
- Community-wise data should be collected on population, education, occupation, income and representation in public institutions.
Use Multiple Indicators
- Classification should consider social stigma, traditional occupation, educational attainment, geographical isolation and representation rather than income or population alone.
Ensure Transparent Criteria
- The indicators, weight assigned to them and formula for distributing the quota should be publicly explained.
Periodic Review
- Sub-categories and their shares should be reassessed at fixed intervals to reflect changing levels of disadvantage and representation.
Flexible Redistribution
- A transparent mechanism may permit the transfer of unfilled seats between sub-categories after reasonable efforts have been made to find eligible candidates.
Strengthen the NCBC
- The National Commission for Backward Classes should examine the evidence, consult affected communities and oversee periodic review.
Stakeholder Consultation
- State governments, OBC commissions, experts and representatives of different OBC communities should be consulted before implementation.
Provide Capability Support
- Scholarships, hostels, quality schooling, coaching and skill development should enable the most backward communities to utilise their allocated share.

Sub-categorisation can make OBC reservation more equitable by ensuring that inclusion in the OBC list results in the actual receipt of benefits. However, redistribution without reliable data may merely replace one form of inequality with another. The appropriate approach is transparent, evidence-based and periodically reviewed sub-categorisation, supported by creamy-layer exclusion and wider investments in education and capabilities.

Sample Mains Question

1.“Sub-categorisation of OBCs seeks to move reservation from formal inclusion towards equitable distribution of actual benefits.” Discuss. (250 Words, 15 Marks)

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