Cabinet set to clear bill on states ‘OBC list’ power

Once Parliament amends Article 342-A and 366(26)C of the Constitution, states will be empowered to add castes to the OBC list. The amendment will clarify that regardless of the clauses on the central list, every state or UT may by law prepare and maintain, for its own purposes, a list of socially and educationally backward classes distinct from the central list. Article 366(26C) will be amended to additionally explain that ‘socially and educationally backward classes’ mean such classes so defined separately in the central government, states or UT lists under Article 342A.

The amendment will also draw from the position taken by the Centre in its recent review petition. It had argued that Articles 15(4), 15(5) and 16(4) expressly conferred power on a state to identify and declare the list of socially and educationally backward classes and states have been doing so in the last 68 years. The Centre had contended in its review petition in the Supreme Court that Article 342(2) was intended only to ensure that the President (meaning the Centre) would identify backward classes for the purpose of the central list and it was wrong to interpret this as excluding states to have their own lists.

Article 342A was introduced through the 102nd Constitution Amendment in 2018 by the Modi government to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Castes. Incidentally, opposition parties had warned in Parliament during the debate in 2018 that interpretation of the amendment could have implications for states’ powers over the OBC lists.

Almost two years later, the SC quashed the Maharashtra government’s decision to grant reservations to Marathas, saying that as per Article 342A, only the Centre was empowered to draw up a single ‘central’ OBC list.