Information commission recommends personnel ministry to mention sub-caste with SC-ST-OBC in UPSC exams

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has recommended the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) that to mention sub-caste along with Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Classes in the results of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams.

Usually, while declaring the results, only the details of the main category such as SC, ST or OBC the candidate belongs to were given. But now the CIC has suggested to DoPT that the final selection list should mention the sub-caste of the candidate along with the main category.

The commission observed that it would be of great benefit in future if the results were to include information on sub-castes along with caste. This would clearly show which caste groups are actually benefiting from reservation and which groups are still deprived, so that the reservation policy can be evaluated more accurately.

The motive behind this recommendation is that earlier a person had sought caste-wise information of the candidates selected as Indian Administrative Services (IAS) in the UPSC examination of the year 1995 under Right to Information (RTI). However, the DoPT replied that they only have data for the main categories like SC, ST and OBC, not at the sub-caste level.

Currently, the data for examinations conducted after 2017 is available on the UPSC portal only according to general categories such as SC, ST, OBC without any mention of sub-caste.