New Delhi: Lok Sabha passed OBC reservation amendment bill on Tuesday to allow the states and UTs to draw of their own list of OBCs. The bill was cleared Lok Sabha with 385 votes for and no one can oppose it. The Union cabinet was brought the constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021, to undo a categorical Supreme Court ruling in May that only the Central government can prepare an OBC list.

The court’s stricture came during a hearing on the Maratha quota issue and cited a law passed in August 2018 to give constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes. “States have no power to add any caste to socially economically backward caste list due to the amendment made by Parliament,” the Supreme Court had observed back then.

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar moved the bill in the house on Tuesday, and he described the bill as a historic legislation. It would benefit 671 castes in the country, he said. The Shiv Sena on Tuesday brought in an amendment to the bill in the Lok Sabha but it was defeated, with 305 voting against and only 71 for it.

The bill received support from the Opposition, despite the rivals targeting the Centre over a range of issues, including the farmers’ protest and the alleged Pegasus spyware scandal. The protests over these other matters were suspended for the bill to be passed. Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdary initiated the discussion on the bill and he criticized that the government had brought the bill with an eye on the assembly elections in UP and Uttara Khand in 2022.

A constitution amendment bill requires two-thirds majority to be passed in Parliament.