New Delhi, Nov. 7 -- The Supreme Court on Friday clarified that its March 11 judgment, which said Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates cannot be excluded from reservation benefits solely based on their parents' salary income, will not apply to past appointments after the government opposed the retrospective operation. It said that the judgment was passed in favour of the parties who approached it. Regarding retrospective operation, a bench of Justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan said the decided ratio will not lead to reopening of appointments already made. The court said the government is at liberty to have its own policy. It held that its judgment will govern service allocation under the 2025 civil services examination, since the process was ongoing when the judgment was pronounced. The government filed an application in August, saying that the judgment's operation to all past appointments and admissions would lead to complete administrative chaos. It requested two years to work out equivalent posts similar to Group A and B officers in the government for identifying the creamy layer among those employed in public sector undertakings (PSUs) and private employment. The March 11 judgment gave the government six months to implement it. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta and additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati argued that the application does not question the judgment. "The Union government is only praying for a limited deferral of the operationalisation of the law laid down by this court for a period of two years so that the competing rights can be adjusted consistent with the administrative contingencies and an effective equivalence exercise is carried out," Bhati argued. "The application of the present judgment to past and ongoing recruitments will gravely prejudice the competing rights of persons who were not even a party to the present litigation and will result in reopening of seniority, cadre allocation of appointees and candidates and result in complete administrative chaos." Bhati pointed out that the civil service exam recruitment rules for past year and this year have been issued. She added that some candidates are citing this judgment to seek enhanced allocation opportunities based on the benefits under the March 11 judgment. She said some candidates whose parents are earning even over Rs.1 crore annually would benefit and be considered as OBC non-creamy layer category by virtue of the implementation of the judgment. The court passed judgment in March on the Union government's appeals against Madras high court orders. The high court permitted an OBC candidate to be treated as a non-creamy layer candidate, which furthered his career prospects. The candidate recommended for the Indian Police Service under the OBC reservation became entitled to allocation under the Indian Foreign Service. The Supreme Court approved the high court order. It discarded the Union government's objection that his father worked with a multinational, had a high income, and would come under the creamy layer. It said another candidate was entitled to OBC reservation in the civil services after he was initially refused it because of his father's PSU employment, which fetched a higher income....