Justice Balakrishnan Commission
- May 8, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Justice Balakrishnan Commission
Subject :Polity
Section: Constitution
Concept :
- Former Chief Justice of India K. Balakrishnan, who heads the Inquiry Commission into whether Dalit converts to religions other than Sikhism or Buddhism should get Scheduled Caste status, said his panel could deliver its report in a year, and that too before the election year of 2024.
Details
- The Union Government has appointed a three-member commission, headed by former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan, to consider the possibility of granting SC status to “new persons who have historically belonged to the Scheduled Castes’’ but have converted to religions other than Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
Need Of The Commission:
- The new commission has been set up at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a PIL filed by the National Council of Dalit Christians (NCDC), which has been fighting for SC status since 2020 — there have been numerous other cases filed in the apex court on the matter since 2004. In August, the Supreme Court had directed the Centre to submit its current position on the issue.
- The contention of Dalit Christian and Muslim organisations has been that these communities continue to face discrimination.But, these organisationscriticised the latest move by the Centre as a “delaying tactic’’.
- The commission will also examine the implications of any decision in this matter on existing SCs, and the changes they go through on converting to other religions in terms of customs, traditions, social and other discrimination, and deprivation.
Constitution Order of 1950
- When enacted, the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950, initially provided for recognizing only Hindus as SCs, to address the social disability arising out of the practice of untouchability.
- The Order was amended in 1956 to include Dalits who had converted to Sikhism and once more in 1990 to include Dalits who had converted to Buddhism.
- Both amendments were aided by the reports of the Kaka Kalelkar Commission in 1955 and the High-Powered Panel (HPP) on Minorities, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes in 1983 respectively.
- The 1950 Order (post amendments in 1956 and 1990), mandates that anybody who is not a Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist cannot be granted SC status.
Ranganath Report 2007
- The recommendation of Scheduled Caste reservation for Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam was made in the 2007 report of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities.
- Dalit Christians and Muslims face discrimination not only from upper-caste members of their own religion but also from the broader Hindu-dominated society.
- The exclusion of Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam from the SC category violates the constitutional guarantee of equality and is against the basic tenets of these religions, which reject caste discrimination.
- The denial of SC status to Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam has led to their socio-economic and educational backwardness and has deprived them of access to reservations in education and employment opportunities (as provided under article 16).
- Centre Stand :
- The Centre had discredited the report, but the apex court believes it contains valuable information that could help determine if excluding Dalit converts from the SC category is unconstitutional according to the Constitution Order of 1950.