The Constitution 127th Amendment Bill 2021
Objective of the Bill
- Some provisions have to be clarified in the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018. It is introduced so as to help restore the power of the states to identify backward classes.
- The 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018 has given constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) under Article 338B.
- This amendment also introduced two new articles.
The new articles are-
- Article 342A deals with the Central List of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes.
- Article 366 (260) defines socially and educationally backward classes.
However, the issue came to the fore when the Supreme Court in one of its judgments repealed the reservation quota for Marathas. It was argued in this decision that after the enactment of the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018, only the central government can notify socially and educationally backward classes and not the state government.
Since 1993, OBC lists in India are prepared separately by the central government and the respective state governments.
Articles 15(4), 15(5) and 16(4) empower the state to identify and declare a list of socially and educationally backward classes.
Thus the 127th Amendment Bill amends Articles 338B, 342A 2 and 366(26C) to make it clear that State Governments and Union Territories have the right to prepare and maintain their own State List/Union Territory List of SEBCs.
Source – The Hindu
