For providing reservations for backward class of citizens, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the public educational institutions and for providing equal opportunity in the matters of public employment, Central Government appointed two Commissions under Article 340(1) of the Constitution of India for identifying the backward class of citizens as contemplated under Article 16(4) for the purpose of making reservation of appointments or posts in the Services under Union of India. The first Backward Class Commission known as Kaka Kalelkar’s Commission was set up on January 29, 1953 and it submitted its report on March 30, 1955 listing out 2399 castes as socially and educationally backward on the basis of criteria evolved by it, but the Central Government did not accept that report and shelved it in the cold storage.
It was about twenty-four years after the First Backward Classes Commission submitted its Report in 1955 that the President of India pursuant to the resolution of the Parliament appointed the second Backward Classes Commission on 1st January 1979 under the Chairmanship of Shri B. P. Mandal to investigate the conditions of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (for short ‘SEBCs’) within the territory of India. One of the terms of reference of the Commission was to determine the criteria for defining the SEBCs. The Commission commenced its functioning on 21st March 1979 and completed its work on 12th December 1980, during the course of which it made an extensive tour throughout the length and breadth of India in order to collect the requisite data for its final report. The Commission submitted its report with a minute of dissent of one of its members, Shri L. R. Naik on 31st December 1980.
The Commission appears to have identified as many as 3743 castes as SEBCs and made its recommendations under Chapter XIII of Volume I of its report (vide paras 13.1 to 13.39) and finally suggested “regarding the period of operation of Commission’s recommendations, the entire scheme should be reviewed after twenty years. (Vide para 13.40)
The entire Report comprises of fourteen Chapters of which Chapter IV deals with ‘Social Backwardness and Caste’, Chapter XI deals with ‘Socio-Educational Field Survey and Criteria of Backwardness’, Chapter XII deals with ‘Identification of OBCs’ and Chapter XIII gives the ‘Recommendations’. On the basis of the Commission’s Report – Popularly known as Mandal Commission’s Report – (for short ‘the Report’), two Office Memoranda – one dated 13-8-1990 and the other amended one dated 25-9-1991 were issued by the Government of India.
The expression deployed in both the OMs, “Socially and Educationally Backward Classes” is on the strength of the Report of the Commission, though no such expression is used in Article 16(4) whereunder the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens is to be made. This expression is used as an explanatory one to the words ‘backward class’ occurring in Article 16(4). Articles 16 (4) and 340 (1) were embodied in the Constitution even at the initial stage; but Article 15(4) containing the same expression as in Article 340 (1) was subsequently added by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act of 1951 to override the decision of this Court in State of Madras v. Smt. Champakam Dorairajan, 1951 SCR 525.
Reference
Indira Sawhney v Union of India 1993 (1) SCT 448