Govt approves new national constitutional body for OBCs with binding recommendations

The new panel will replace National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) that looks into inclusion or exclusion of other backward castes for quotas, among other issues.

The Union cabinet approved on Thursday a National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (NSEBC) as a constitutional body.

A sweeper works at Parliament during the budget session in New Delhi. (PTI)

The new panel will replace National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) that looks into inclusion or exclusion of other backward castes for quotas, among other issues.

The new commission “shall examine requests for inclusion of any class of citizens as a backward class in the lists and hear complaints of over-inclusion or under-inclusion of any backward class in such lists and tender such advice to the central government as it deems appropriate,” said a source.

The related bill is likely to be introduced in Parliament in this ongoing budget session.

“There have been demands in Parliament and by the general public for grant of constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes to enable it to hear the grievances of OBCs in the same manner that a National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes hear the grievances of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,” said a source.

By making the new panel a constitutional body, the advice of the commission shall ordinarily be binding upon the central government.