States cannot tinker with Scheduled Castes List, Supreme Court holds

A view of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi. File
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy

The Supreme Court has held that States cannot tinker with the Scheduled Castes List notified under Article 341 of the Constitution.

“Any inclusion or exclusion of any caste, race or tribe or part of or group within the castes, races or tribes has to be, by law made by the Parliament, and not by any other mode or manner,” a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P.K. Mishra clarified the law.

The judgment came in a challenge by Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar Vichar Manch, Patna, to a July 1, 2015 notification issued by the Bihar government, on the basis of the recommendation of the State Backward Commission to merge the Extremely Backward Class of Tanti-Tantwa with the Scheduled Caste of Pan/Sawasi in the Scheduled Castes List. The merger would enable the Tanti-Tantwa to claim the benefits of Scheduled Castes.

Justice Nath, who authored the judgment, pronounced the 2015 resolution as “patently illegal and erroneous”.

“The State government had no competence/authority/power to tinker with the lists of Scheduled Castes published under Article 341 of the Constitution,” Justice Nath concluded in the verdict dated July 15.

The court said the State Backward Commission, in the first place, had jurisdiction to recommend the joining of a caste or group with a notified Scheduled Caste community.

“Even if it makes such a recommendation, right or wrong, the State has no authority to proceed to implement the same when it was fully aware that the Constitution does not permit it to do so. The provisions of Article 341 are very clear. There is no ambiguity or vagueness,” Justice Nath observed.

Clause (1) of Article 341 mandates that the President, after consultation with the State Governor, may by public notification specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to a State or Union Territory.

Clause (2) adds that any amendment or alteration or variation to the President’s List under Article 341 have to be made by a parliamentary law alone, and not by any notification.

“This would mean that neither the Central government or the President can make any amendments or changes in the notification issued under Clause (1) specifying the castes in relation to the States or Union Territory,” the Supreme Court underscored.