The Central Government of India introduced Monday a bill that would empower state governments to specify socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs) in the Lok Sabha (House of the People).

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021 proposes to amend Article 342A of the Constitution of India, which gives the power to specify SEBCs in a particular state to the president of India and also gives the parliament the power to list SEBCs.

In Dr Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. Chief Minister, a five judge bench of the Supreme Court of India held by a 3:2 majority that Article 342A brought about by the 102nd Constitutional Amendment gives the power to make a list specifying SEBCs firstly to the president of India with respect to states and union territories. The power then goes to the parliament, thus excluding the state governments from the ambit of Article 342A.

The bill seeks to clarify that the state governments have the power to specify their own list of SEBCs in their respective states. It states that “every State or Union Territory may, by law, prepare and maintain, for its own purposes, a list of socially and educationally backward classes, entries in which may be different from the Central list.”