News Analysis India

Tag: Constitution Amendment Bill

  • Will support Modi government, says Congress as Opposition huddles before tabling of Constitution Amendment Bill

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Leaders of 15 Opposition parties met at the Parliament complex on Monday to formulate a common strategy on issues like the Pegasus snooping controversy and farmers’ concerns as the Monsoon session of Parliament entered its final week.

    Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was among those who attended the meeting held at the chamber of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

    After the meeting, Kharge said that the Opposition will support The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill 2021, which will be introduced in Parliament later today.

    Besides the Congress, leaders of the DMK, TMC, NCP, Shiv Sena, SP, CPM, RJD, AAP, CPI, NC, IUML, LJD, RSP and the KC(M) were present.

    Opposition parties have united in seeking a discussion on the Pegasus snooping issue and the farmers’ problems, and is exerting pressure on the government.

    Parliament has failed to transact any significant business since it met on July 19 for the Monsoon session.

    Some bills, however, have been passed amid the din.

  • Bill restoring power of states, UTs to make OBC list set to be tabled soon

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: In line with the BJP’s poll bid for the next year’s Assembly elections, the Union Cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday is learnt to have given nod to a Constitution Amendment Bill to give the powers to the states and the Union Territories to draw their own lists of the other backward castes (OBCs).

    The Constitution Amendment Bill was necessitated to get around the Supreme Court verdict, which had previously ruled that the power to draw the OBC list vested only with the Centre, according to a law enacted in 2018 by Parliament. The Constitution (102) Amendment Bill had granted the Constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward castes.   

    The Constitution (127) Amendment Bill, which will be brought before Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session, will allow the states to add castes in the OBC lists. The lists of the states and the UTs of the socially and educationally backward castes will be separate from the OBC list prepared by the Centre. 

    The Cabinet decision has come close on the heels of another decision which allowed OBC reservation in the national entrance tests for the medical education.The Centre had previously argued before the Supreme Court that the Central law on drawing the OBC list was only for the purposes of the Central government and had not intended to take away the rights of the states and the UTs.     

    While briefing reporters about the Cabinet decision, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur had declined to confirm or decline the Cabinet taking up the Constitution (127) Amendment Bill, saying that Parliament is in session, not elaborating further.

    Last month, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Virendra Kumar had told Rajya Sabha that the government is in consultation with legal experts and the Ministry of Law and examining ways to protect the power of the states in determining the list of OBCs.