Constitutional Amendment Bill introduced in Rajya Sabha

After being passed in Lok Sabha, the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021 was introduced in Rajya Sabha for its approval on Wednesday.

Introducing the bill, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar said the Bill seeks to clarify that the state government and Union territories are empowered to prepare and maintain their own list of SEBCs.

The Minister informed that the Bill if passed will amend Articles 342 A (clauses 1 and 2).

"It will introduce a new clause - 342 A (3) specifically authorising states to maintain their state list. The bill will give power to states to directly notify socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC) without referring to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC)," the Minister informed.

He added that the amendment in Bill will provide that the President may only notify the Central list of socially and educationally backward classes.

Notably, the Amendments in the Bill will change the 102nd Constitution Amendment Act of 2018, which gave constitutional status to the NCBC and gave the power to the President to notify the list SEBCs.

After the Bill was introduced, in a rare display of unity the Opposition leaders agreed to have a discussion on the Bill, but Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and RJD MP Manoj Jha requested the chair to increase time for Opposition leaders to speak on the Bill. After some opposition from the government, the time for discussion was increased to four hours from three hours.

( With inputs from ANI )