 bill no 63 of  2016 the constitution (amendment) bill, 2016 byshri jayadev galla, mp a billfurther to amend the constitution of indiabe  it enacted by parliament in the sixty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—2 for article 340 of the constitution, the following article shall be substituted, namely:—substitution of new article for article 340"340 (1) there shall be a commission for the backward classes to be known as the national commission for the backward classesnational commission for backward classes5(2) subject to the provisions of any law made in this behalf by parliament, the commission shall consist of a chairperson, vice-chairperson and three other members and the conditions of service and tenure of office of the chairperson, vice- chairperson and other members so appointed shall be such as the president may by rule determine10(3) the chairperson, vice-chairperson and other members of the commission shall be appointed by the president by warrant under his hand and seal(4) the commission shall have the power to regulate its own procedure (5) it shall be the duty of the commission—15(a) to investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the backward classes under this constitution or under any other law for the time being in force or under any order of the government and to evaluate the working of such safeguards;(b) to inquire into specific complaints with respect to the deprivation of rights and safeguards of the backward classes;20(c) to participate and advise on the planning process of socio-economic development of the backward classes and to evaluate the progress of their development under the union and any state;(d) to present to the president, annually and at such other times as the commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of those safeguards;25(e) to make in such reports recommendations as to the measures that should be taken by the union or any state for the effective implementation of those safeguards and other measures for the protection, welfare and socioeconomic development of the backward classes; and30(f) to discharge such other functions in relation to the protection, welfare and development and advancement of the backward classes as the president may, subject to the provisions of any law made by parliament, by rule specify (6) the president shall cause all such reports to be laid before each house of parliament along with a memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the union and the reasons for the nonacceptance, if any, of any of such recommendations35 40(7) where any such report, or any part thereof, relates to any matter with which any state government is concerned, a copy of such report shall be forwarded to the governor of the state who shall cause it to be laid before the legislature of the state along with a memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the state and the reasons for the non-acceptance, if any, of any of such recommendations45(8) the commission shall, while investigating any matter referred to in subclause (a) or inquiring into any complaint referred to in sub-clause (b) of clause (5), have all the powers of a civil court trying a suit and in particular in respect of the following matters, namely:—(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of india and examining him on oath;(b) requiring the discovery and production of any document; (c) receiving evidence on affidavits; (d) requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court oroffice;(e) issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and documents;5(f) any other matter which the president may, by rule, determine(9) the union and every state government shall consult the commission on all major policy matters affecting backward classes" statement of objects and reasonsindia is a diverse country with different castes, religions and groups inspite of this diversity, india is united and one of the reasons for such unity is that the framers of the constitution have taken care of interests of all citizens irrespective of caste, colour and creed while making the constitution but, unfortunately, backward classes who constitute more than fifty per cent of the total population are not getting their due share in the absence of appropriate provisions in the constitutionthere is no doubt that article 340 of the constitution deals with appointment of commission to look into the conditions of backward classes, provide grants by union and states and also talks about laying reports in parliament, etc but, it does not deal with the core aspects of the backward classesthe existing commission does not have the jurisdiction to investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the backward classes under the commission or under any other law; it cannot inquire into specific complaints with respect to the deprivation of rights and safeguards; it cannot participate in the planning process of socio-economic development of backward classes and advise the state or the central government; the present commission does not have the powers of a civil court as it has been in the case of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes commissions and it is not mandatory on the part of union or state governments to consult the present commission on major policy matters relating to the backward classes, apart from other deficiencies in the existing commissionsecondly, in pursuance of various representations and requests made, parliamentary committee for welfare of backward classes, in its first report, recommended for conferring constitutional status on the national commission for backward classes at par with national commission for scheduled castes and the national commission for scheduled tribes to deal with various grievances and to undertake welfare measuresthirdly, some states classified backward classes on the basis of castes or communities into two or three groups such as backward class and most backward class some other states classified backward classes into a, b, c, d groups as per their status and occupations but, there is no such classification made in the central list of other backward classesin view of the above and in the absence of constitutional status to the national commission for backward classes and in the absence of an effective mechanism or forum with constitutional status to deal with grievances and various other issues relating to backward classes, the proposed bill seeks to amend the constitution to confer constitutional status on the national commission for backward classeshence this billnew delhi;jayadev gallafebruary 10, 2015 financial memorandumclause 2 of the bill provides for setting up of a national commission for backward classes it also provides for appointment of chairperson, vice-chairperson and members of the commission the bill, therefore, if enacted, would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that an annual recurring expenditure of about rupees ten crore will be involveda non-recurring expenditure of about rupees ten crore is also likely to be involved annexure extract from the constitution of india    appointment of a commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes340 (1) the president may by order appoint a commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territory of india and the difficulties under which they labour and to make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the union or any state to remove such difficulties and to improve their condition and as to the grants that should be made for the purpose by the union or any state and the conditions subject to which such grants should be made, and the order appointing such commission shall define the procedure to be followed by the commission(2) a commission so appointed shall investigate the matters referred to them and present to the president a report setting out the facts as found by them and making such recommendations as they think proper(3) the president shall cause a copy of the report so presented together with a memorandum explaining the action taken thereon to be laid before each house of parliament     ———— a billfurther to amend the constitution of india————(shri jayadev galla, mp)gmgipmrnd—4352ls(s3)—03-03-2016