Hello,

Actually during the counseling, the most recently issued category certificate is required, that's why you need to have a recently issued caste certificate. Also your category certificate is 3 years old so that won't help your case during the counseling.

Other Backward Caste are further divided into Creamy Layer(CL) and Non Creamy Layer(NCL). To put in easy words if you wish to derive benefits of the reservation then you have to be OBC -NCL as OBC-CL candidates will be treated as General category students.

In order to qualify as an OBC non-creamy layer candidate, the applicant’s parents’ annual income should be less than Rs. 8 lakhs. Also you can check if your caste comes in category of OBC on the official website -

http://www.ncbc.nic.in/

And yes OBC certificate is different from OBC NCL certificate, unless your certificate clearly mentions that you are OBC-NCL you can't derive reservation benefits.

Thank you.