How did the government explain its failure to revise the SEBC lists 10 years after its notification?
The government said it had reviewed the lists. It consulted the NCBC as per the 1993 Act. The NCBC told the government that it would not advise any exclusion at that stage. The NCBC also told the government that it did not have the required staff to do an independent survey. They did have a conference on the question of the revision of the SEBC lists in 2003 in which all the State governments and State Commissions for Backward Classes were represented. Everybody was very clear that there was no question of artisan castes or the labour[er] castes having made the grade. All the State Commissions that took part in this conference expressed the view that the situation was not ripe for the exclusion of any of the castes from the lists. Chairpersons of some of the State Commissions were former judges and senior civil servants. A community that is backward remains backward as a result of the operation of centuries of social processes, which also include economic processes mediated through the
