LS passes Bill to extend SC-ST quota in legislatures

he Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a Constitution amendment bill to extend the reservation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the lower house till January 25, 2030, but made no reference to the nomination of members from the Anglo-Indian community to the lower house and some state legislatures.

The Constitution (126th Amendment) Bill was passed after a four-hour debate that saw the opposition targeting the Modi government for allowing the representation of members of the Anglo-Indian community to the Lok Sabha and state legislatures to lapse on January 25, 2020.

The Bill amends Article 334 (A) of the Constitution to extend the reservation for SC/ST communities in the Lok Sabha for another 10 year period beyond January 25, 2020.

Piloting the Bill, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that the legislation was aimed at extending reservation for SC/ST communities till 2030, but gave no categorical assurance on granting a similar extension to the Anglo-Indian community.

Prasad said the government had only brought the bill relating to the SC/ST reservations, but asserted that the doors were not shut yet on the nomination of Anglo-Indian community members.

“The BJP is determined to provide reservation for SC/ST and it will be. This reservation will never be removed,” Prasad said adding that the government also planned to introduce reservation in the judiciary as well.

In the 543-member Lok Sabha, 84 constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 47 for Scheduled Tribes. Of the 4,139 seats in legislative assemblies across the country, 614 are reserved for SC and 554 for ST.

On Anglo-Indians, Prasad the community has been reduced to just 296 members across the country as per the Census of 2011, trigerring uproar from the opposition benches.

Congress member Hibi Eden claimed that the Anglo-Indian community comprised 3.47 lakh members, a figure contested by the government. The minister argued that several Anglo-Indians, after marrying into other communities, refrained from identifying themselves as Anglo-Indians, which was cited as a reason for their dwindling numbers.