What is the 105th Amendment of the Indian Constitution?

To understand the 105th Amendment, we must look back at the 102nd Amendment Act (2018), which gave constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). However, in May 2021, while hearing the Maratha reservation case, the Supreme Court ruled that the 102nd Amendment had inadvertently taken away the power of State governments to maintain their own state-level lists of OBCs, leaving that power solely with the President/Central Government.

State governments argued that they are better equipped to identify which specific communities within their state require affirmative action and reservation. To correct the Supreme Court's interpretation and uphold the federal structure, the Central Government introduced the 105th Amendment.

This amendment explicitly clarified that State governments and Union Territories have the absolute right and power to prepare and maintain their own separate state lists of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs).

If this amendment had not been passed, nearly 671 backward communities across India would have lost their OBC status and the associated educational and employment reservations, because they were on State lists but not on the Central list. The amendment protected the social security of these communities.