Previous Year Question

The Constitution provides for the identification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under Articles 341 and 342, respectively. Under these provisions, the President specifies by Public Notification the castes or tribal communities that shall be deemed to be SCs or STs in relation to a particular State or Union Territory.

In the case of a State, the President issues such a notification after consultation with the Governor of the concerned State. Thus, the constitutional power of initial specification of the SC/ST lists is associated with the President.

An important distinction is that after the Presidential notification has been issued, the power to include a community in or exclude it from the list belongs to Parliament by law. Thus, subsequent inclusion or exclusion from the SC/ST list can be made only through Parliamentary legislation; the President cannot independently alter the list through another notification.

The Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes or National Commission for Scheduled Tribes does not declare a community as SC/ST. These Commissions primarily monitor constitutional safeguards, investigate complaints and advise or report to the government; hence option (d) is incorrect.