Presidential Notification and Parliamentary Specification of Scheduled Castes
Official heading: “Scheduled Castes”
- Source edition
- The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2026)
- Source locator
- Part XVI, Article 341, printed page 202
- Last human source-link check
- Not yet checked
- Last human legal review
- Not yet reviewed
AI-assisted source comparisons are noted with the citations below; the check date remains pending until a human confirms the link. The report link opens your email app; you choose whether to send it.
1. In One Sentence
Provides that the President specifies Scheduled Castes by public notification for each State, and only Parliament can by law include or exclude castes from the list.
2. What It Means in Everyday Language
Article 341 defines the exclusive constitutional mechanism for identifying and officially notifying Scheduled Castes (SC).
Under clause (1), the President, after consultation with the Governor of a State, specifies by public notification the castes, races, or tribes (or groups within them) that shall be deemed Scheduled Castes in relation to that State or Union territory.
Under clause (2), once the initial Presidential Order (such as the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950) is issued, it can only be modified by an Act of Parliament. Neither the executive nor a State Legislature has the authority to add, delete, or alter any entry in the Scheduled Castes list.
As affirmed by the Supreme Court in State of Maharashtra v. Milind (2000), Presidential orders under Article 341 must be read as they stand; courts cannot add or substitute communities based on linguistic or ethnographic analogies.
3. Practical Illustrative Example
A state cabinet seeks to include a neglected artisan community in the state Scheduled Castes list.
4. Important Limits, Qualifications & Exceptions
Article 341 establishes a centralized, statutory framework for defining Scheduled Castes.
- Initial presidential order: Notified by the President with respect to each State or Union territory.
- Parliamentary monopoly: Only Parliament can amend the list to include or exclude any caste, race, or group.
- Strict textual interpretation: Courts and executive authorities cannot alter, expand, or interpret entries beyond their express statutory wording.
5. Operative Constitutional Text
6. Sources & Historical Assembly Deliberations
Assembly quotations are withheld until wording, dates, and attribution have been checked against the primary record.
- •Government of India (Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice) • Part XVI, Article 341, printed page 202 • Human source-link check pending
Primary PDF accessed and transcribed with AI assistance on 14 October 2026. Formatting and amendment annotation markers are omitted; operative wording is retained. This is not human legal review. Later amendments and commencement notifications have not been comprehensively checked.