Which of the following Commissions has been given the special responsibility of safeguarding the rights and interests of the Anglo-Indian Community?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — A, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. Article 338(10) provides that in that Article, references to the Scheduled Castes shall be construed as including references to the Anglo-Indian community. The effect is that every function the Commission performs for the Scheduled Castes under Article 338 — investigating and monitoring safeguards, enquiring into specific complaints, advising on planning for socio-economic development, and reporting to the President — it also performs for the Anglo-Indian community. No separate Anglo-Indian commission exists.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) Created as a separate body by the 89th Amendment Act, 2003 under Article 338A, its mandate is confined to the Scheduled Tribes. The Anglo-Indian clause sits in Article 338, not Article 338A.  (c) The National Commission for Backward Classes works for the socially and educationally backward classes under Article 338B, inserted by the 102nd Amendment Act, 2018. That same amendment removed backward classes from the NCSC's remit — but left the Anglo-Indian mandate with the NCSC.  (d) A statutory body set up under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, not a constitutional one, and its mandate is human rights generally — it is not charged with safeguarding any single named community.

Concept: Article 338 originally created one commission for both Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The 89th Amendment Act, 2003 split it into the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (Article 338) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (Article 338A), with the two bodies functioning separately from 2004. The Anglo-Indian community — defined in Article 366(2) — has never had its own commission; instead, Article 338(10) folds it into the NCSC's jurisdiction.

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