Union Government Has Rendered National Commission For Backward Classes Nonfunctional, Hope Appointments Are Made Expeditiously: Madras High Court

The bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy made the remarks in a plea filed by Advocate K Balu seeking directions to the authorities to constitute and appoint the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and other members for the commission at the earliest.

“The Government has constituted a team for National Commission for Backward Classes, but has rendered it nonfunctional. It is expected that the Union would take effective steps for appointing a Vice Chairman and other Members of the National Commission for Backward Classes expeditiously,” the court said.

The court noted that while the quorum of the commission was five, the appointments were made only to the post of Chairman and one other member which meant that the commission could not function. Thus, the court expected the Union government to take steps for making appointments to the post of vice-chairman and other members of the commission.

The petitioner, who is the President of the Advocates’ Forum for Social Justice had filed the petition to protect the rights of the backward classes particularly other backward classes as guaranteed under the Constitution. He submitted that after the 102^nd Constitutional Amendment, the National Commission for Backward Classes Act 1993 was repealed and Article 338B was inserted into the Constitution thus giving a constitutional status to the Commission.

Balu thus contended that the functioning of the NCBC was essential and necessary to decide the rights of the persons belonging to the other backward classes in the country but the commission had not been functioning for the past 6 months.

Balu added that as per Article 340 of the Constitution, the commission was to decide the status and conditions of the socially and educationally backward classes but since no appointments had been made to the commission, the rights of persons belonging to the backward community were being deprived. Balu thus claimed that allowing a constitutional body to remain vacant for such a long time was allowing the law of the land to jeopardize and nip the neck of social justice.

Case Title: K Balu v Government of India and Others

Case No: WP 86098 of 2022