Indian Governor's conference

Why in news?

The two-day conference will beheld inRastrapathiBhavan, New Delhi.

Theconference will be the first Conference of Governors to be presided over byMurmu

About:

Governor's conference isextra constitutional devisefor securing cooperation and coordination between the states in India

In this conference, deliberation over important issues related to states and union territory.

For example, recent conference discussessome of the following key issues and policies.

1. Security- Internal and External with special focus on terrorism and insurgency activities;

2. Creating jobs for youths: special focus on skill development for school dropouts;

3. Implementation of flagshipprogrammesof the Government.

4. Improving quality of Higher Education;

5. Issues relating to Fifth and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India and development related issues of North Eastern Areas.

“Govtwants Governors to pro-actively share views on social media when states-Centre differ on policyissues”,Thisis one of a set of suggestions that finds mention in an official agenda note in the run-up to the two-day Conference of Governors beginning August 2.

Article 341 of the constitution

•Thesupreme courton Thursday ruled that the sub-classification ofscheduled castes (SC) and Scheduled tribes (ST) is permissible for providing reservation s in government jobs and education.

•The seven judge constitution bench, headed by chief justice D.YChandrachudin a 6:1 majority verdict overruled the court’s 2004judgement, which held that SCs form a homogenous group and hence could not be sub divided into categories.

•The 2004 verdict had stated that only parliament, and not state legislatures, can exclude castes deemed to be SC from the presidential list under article 341 of the constitution.

Article 341:

Authority on Scheduled Castes Designation: Itauthorisesthe President to declare certain castes and classes as Scheduled Castes in a state or a union territory.

•It also states that the Parliament can include or exclude any caste or tribe from the list.

Application:

This authority applies to any State or Union Territory.

For States, the President mustconsult with the Governorbefore making a designation.

•Article 14of the constitution which pertains to equality before thelaw,permitted the sub classification of caste.

•Thejudgementadded that historical evidence and social parameter showsthat all SCs and STsdonotconstitute a homogenous group.

•The bench noted that the sub-classificationofthesegroups was also not against the Article 341 of the constitution, which conferred upon the president the right tomakechangeson the list of SC and ST.

•The bench noted that“the sub-categorisationwithin a class isaconstitutionalrequirement to securesunstantiveequaity”.

•The bench highlighted theIndraSawhneycase in which the 9 judge bench held it constitutional to classify backward class as “backward and more backward”.