The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar introduced the 2024 Constitution (Article 127 Amendment) Act at the Lok Sabha on Monday (August 9). The bill aims to restore the power of states to make their own OBC lists. When expounding the goals and motivations, Kumar stated that in order to fully clarify that the federal states and territories have the right to formulate and maintain their own ESCB lists (social and educational backward classes), and for the purpose of maintaining the federal structure, the country needs to amend Article 342A. And corresponding amendments were made in Article 338B and Article 366 of the Constitution.
Article 338B was inserted in the 102nd Constitutional Reform Act of 2018, which deals with the structure, duties and powers of the National Committee of Backward Classes. Section 342A deals with the power of the President to notify a specific caste as the ESCB and the power of Parliament to change the list. Section 366 (26C) defines ESCB. On May 5, the Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court consisting of five judges headed by Justice Ashok Busan unanimously rejected a law in Maharashtra that granted quotas to Marathians and rejected The 1992 ruling of Mandal was passed to the Supreme Court to dismiss the center’s request for review of its May 5 majority ruling.
The ruling held that the 102nd Amendment to the Constitution deprived the states of the power to notify the ESCB to grant employment and admission quotas. The opposition party accused the central government of attacking the federal structure by depriving states of the power to identify and enumerate other backward classes (OBC). However, Kumar told Rajya Sabha last month that the government is consulting legal experts and the Legal Department and studying ways to protect the power of states to determine state CBO lists.