Parliament Winter session: Bill to grant NCBC constitutional status to be re-introduced in Lok Sabha

Officials silent on whether it will include amendments proposed by Opposition

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Parliament house in New Delhi. (Express file photo)

Following the impasse over the Bill to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) in the last session of Parliament, the Union government is set to reintroduce the Bill in the Lok Sabha in the forthcoming Winter Session.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Third Amendment) Bill, 2017 to bring NCBC, set up in 1993, on a par with National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and National Commisson for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), was passed by the Lok Sabha. When the Bill was brought before the Rajya Sabha during Monsoon Session, owing to low turnout in treasury benches, the Opposition managed to pass a crucial amendment to Clause III. The amendment expanded the three-member commission to five so as to give representation to a woman and a person from minority community and mandated that all five members should necessarily be from Other Backward Classes (OBC). Another amendment sought to protect the federal structure by giving states a significant role in making recommendations to the list.

In the end, the government decided to put the Bill to vote after dropping Clause III. With separate versions of the Bill being passed in the two Houses, it will now have to be passed once again in Lok Sabha.

Officials from the central government are tight-lipped about whether the Bill that will be introduced in the Lok Sabha would include amendments proposed by the Opposition or whether the original Bill will be brought in again. “The form of the Bill is yet to be decided,” said an official.

Sources in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which is responsible for drafting the legislation, however, indicated the original Bill may be reintroduced.

The NCBC currently plays a recommendatory role to the government on inclusion or exclusion of a community in the Central list of OBC. The proposed legislation will allow the NCBC to look at grievance redressal and safeguarding the interest of OBCs, powers that until now vested with the SC Commission.

The decision to introduce the Bill in the forthcoming session comes in the run-up to Gujarat elections and is in line with the BJP’s agenda to increase its support base among the OBC community.

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In another move, seemingly aimed at wooing the extremely backward classes within OBC and undermining the sway held by regional parties over dominant OBC groups, the Cabinet in August approved setting up of a commission to examine sub-categorisation of 5,000-odd castes in the central list. The five-member panel is headed by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice G Rohini.

It has time till January 2018 to submit its report on further classifying OBC based on degrees of social and educational backwardness with the stated purpose of ensuring a “more equitable distribution” of reservation in central government jobs and educational institutions.

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