Articles 341 and 342
Constitutional Basis for SC/ST Identification
Article 341 empowers the President to notify castes, races, or tribes (or parts/groups within them) as Scheduled Castes for a given state or union territory, after consultation with the Governor where applicable; Article 342 provides an identical mechanism for Scheduled Tribes. Once notified, this list can be amended only by Parliament through law — not by the President's subsequent notification, nor by any court or state government.
- Article 341(2) and Article 342(2) specify that Parliament alone may, by law, include in or exclude from the notified SC/ST list any caste, race, or tribe (or part/group within one); a subsequent presidential notification alone cannot vary the list.
- Article 342A, inserted by the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018, created a parallel mechanism for the Central List of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs/OBCs) at the central level, following the same "law by Parliament" logic.
- In E.V. Chinnaiah v. State of A.P. (2004), a five-judge bench held that Scheduled Castes notified under Article 341 form a single, homogeneous class that state legislatures cannot sub-classify for preferential treatment — a holding that stood until it was overruled twenty years later.
- The Centre's affidavit invokes Articles 341 and 342 to argue that any exclusion of a "creamy layer" from the SC/ST lists — which would effectively narrow who counts as SC/ST for reservation purposes — is a legislative act reserved to Parliament, not a matter courts can direct the executive to implement.
● Tracked since August 06, 2026 · last seen August 29, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
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