The Supreme Court has dismissed the Centre’s review petition challenging the court’s interpretation of the 102nd amendment to the Constitution, Live Law reported on Friday. In its review petition filed in May, the Centre had said that the power of the states to identify and notify socially and educationally backward classes cannot be scrapped.
The 102nd amendment to the Constitution, passed in August 2018, gave constitutional status to the National Backward Classes Commission. The amendment also gave the President powers to notify backward classes.
A five-judge constitution bench said the power that lies only with the president cannot be given to states. “The grounds taken in the review petition do not fall within the limited ground on which review petition can be considered,” the court said in an order posted on its website on Thursday. “The various grounds taken in the review petition have already been dealt with in the main judgement. We do not find any sufficient ground to entertain this review petition. The review petition is dismissed.”
The Centre can now move a curative writ petition, the last legal resort available after a review plea has been dismissed by the Supreme Court, according to The Indian Express. It can also address the matter through the Parliament.
On May 5, the Supreme Court heard a batch of petitions challenging the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018, saying it would breach the ceiling of 50% quota limit imposed by the Supreme Court itself in a landmark verdict in 1992. The court held that the quota was unconstitutional.
In a 3:2 majority, a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court also held that the power to identify and notify socially and educationally backward classes at both the Central and the state levels will now lie exclusively with the president.
Till now, there had been two separate lists of groups that constituted the Other Backward Classes that were eligible to avail quotas in educational institutions and government jobs. The Centre had a list of Other Backward Classes that was used for admission to educational institutions run by the Centre and for Central government jobs. The states had their own lists of Other Backward Classes that they used for state institutions.
On May 5, though, the Supreme Court ruled that there will only be one list of backward classes, notified by the President. This list can only be amended by Parliament. The states can, through their existing mechanisms, or even statutory commissions, can only make suggestions to the President or the commission, for “inclusion, exclusion or modification of castes or communities” in the list.
Also read:
How a Modi government 2018 Constitutional change robbed states of power to identify backward classes
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