The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to explain whether the vacant OBC seats in Central Educational Institutions were being filled up by general candidates, in compliance with its earlier directive.

A five-member Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan also asked the Centre to clarify on the allegation that the unfilled seats of OBCs were being filled up with retrospective effect by enhancing the income ceiling limit from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh.

The bench which included Justices Arijit Pasayat, R V Raveendran, Altamas Kabir and Dalveer Bhandari directed the Centre to clarify the position on the twin issue by filing an affidavit.

The direction was passed on a writ petition filed by a student Vishwarath Reddy alleging that the Centre was filling up the vacant OBC seats with candidates from this category by relaxing the norms and enhancing the income ceiling from Rs 2.5 to Rs 4.5 lakh, thus, denying the general category candidates the benefit extended by the apex court earlier.

On October 14, the Constitution Bench had firmly told the Centre that the unfilled OBC seats in terms of the 27 percent reservation extended to the community in central educational institutions, should be filled up with the general category candidates.

The apex court had said that all vacant OBC seats would revert to the general category pool and had also asked the Centre to fill these up by October end.