The Centre on Tuesday indicated it was considering a constitutional amendment to overrule a two-month-old Supreme Court judgment that had shot down the states’ right to prepare their own lists of the Other Backward Classes.

Seven Lok Sabha members had asked questions relating to the May 5 apex court judgment that says the Centre’s overall list of OBC communities will apply to the states too.

To the question whether the Centre was considering a constitutional amendment to restore the states’ power to decide their own OBC lists, minister of state for social justice Pratima Bhoumik said: “The matter is under examination.”

The Centre has an overall OBC list, which is the basis for the 27 per cent quota in central government jobs and higher education seats. But till now, the states too had their own OBC lists — which tended to include additional castes — and their own OBC quotas for state-level jobs and college and university seats.

According to the apex court judgment, the Centre will revise its OBC list by including every additional caste that is on any state’s list. This list will then apply to every state.

The states will continue to retain their respective OBC quota volumes — which is, for instance, 50 per cent in Tamil Nadu. But they can no longer amend the OBC list, which they used to do before by including new groups through executive orders.

Under the apex court order, the Centre alone can amend the list, that too with Parliament’s clearance.

The Supreme Court passed the order while striking down the Maharashtra government’s inclusion of Marathas under the OBC quota as “unconstitutional”.

G. Karunanidhy, national general secretary of the All India OBC Federation, said the Centre’s slowness in bringing in a constitutional amendment suggested it was “not serious” about the matter. “The judgment came in May. All OBC groups asked the government for an immediate constitutional amendment to restore the states’ powers,” he said.

“The Centre went for a review of the judgment. The Supreme Court has dismissed the review too. The government is still ‘examining’ the issue. It does not seem serious about a constitutional amendment.”