NEW DELHI: In line with the BJP’s poll bid for the next year’s Assembly elections, the Union Cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday is learnt to have given nod to a Constitution Amendment Bill to give the powers to the states and the Union Territories to draw their own lists of the other backward castes (OBCs).
The Constitution Amendment Bill was necessitated to get around the Supreme Court verdict, which had previously ruled that the power to draw the OBC list vested only with the Centre, according to a law enacted in 2018 by Parliament. The Constitution (102) Amendment Bill had granted the Constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward castes.
The Constitution (127) Amendment Bill, which will be brought before Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session, will allow the states to add castes in the OBC lists. The lists of the states and the UTs of the socially and educationally backward castes will be separate from the OBC list prepared by the Centre.
The Cabinet decision has come close on the heels of another decision which allowed OBC reservation in the national entrance tests for the medical education.The Centre had previously argued before the Supreme Court that the Central law on drawing the OBC list was only for the purposes of the Central government and had not intended to take away the rights of the states and the UTs.
While briefing reporters about the Cabinet decision, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur had declined to confirm or decline the Cabinet taking up the Constitution (127) Amendment Bill, saying that Parliament is in session, not elaborating further.
Last month, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Virendra Kumar had told Rajya Sabha that the government is in consultation with legal experts and the Ministry of Law and examining ways to protect the power of the states in determining the list of OBCs.