New Delhi, May 16: Graduation will be a benchmark to assess the status of a community or a caste, not an individual, the Supreme Court clarified today.

The apex court also lifted a stay on OBC quotas in higher education, expressing astonishment at the Calcutta High Court order. “Can Calcutta High Court sit in judgment over a Supreme Court order?” Chief Justice Balakrishnan wondered.

The clarification removes the confusion surrounding OBC quotas as the anti-reservation camp had claimed the Supreme Court had ruled out preferential treatment beyond graduation.

“If 50 per cent or more members of a caste or community are graduates, that caste or community would be considered socially and educationally advanced… it’s a benchmark for a caste or community, not an individual,” said a three-judge bench presided over by the chief justice.

“That is the finding of the majority (of the five-judge Constitution bench). You are acting against it…. That’s strange,” he told lawyers of the anti-quota groups.

The creamy layer (as a concept) was to be applied to an individual, whereas graduation was to be applied to a caste, class or community, the chief justice said.

The National Commission for Backward Classes had drawn up the OBC list on the basis of several criteria, one of which was matriculation as the education benchmark. The Supreme Court’s observation is a suggestion, and it is up to the government to decide whether to upgrade the education cut-off to graduation.

In the second stage, those who fall in the creamy layer category — defined as families with an annual income of Rs 2.5 lakh a year and families of Class I officers and other important constitutional functionaries — are kept out of the OBC list.

Staying the high court order that halted OBC quotas, Balakrishnan said: “The act (that introduced the reservation) is upheld… where is the question of a stay? The high court cannot sit in judgment over our judgment.”

The IIMs can now admit students from the OBC list, subject to the final order of the court. Notices have been issued to all parties on a petition filed by the Centre for transferring cases pending in different high courts.