The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021:
The Lok Sabha passed The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to put seven castes under one nomenclature of “Devendrakula Vellalars” with some exceptions for some of the castes in certain districts of Tamil Nadu.
- The castes include Devendrakulathan, Kadaiyan, Kalladi, Kudumban, Pallan, Pannadi and Vathiriyan.
- The State government had earlier accepted a recommendation of a committee to reclassify the seven sub-sects under the generic name ‘Devendrakula Velalar’ and forwarded it to the Centre.
- The change in nomenclature was a long pending demand of the community and did not involve either the deletion or addition of any community in its ambit.
- The reason why a whole new addition was not made to the Scheduled Castes list was to ensure that old caste certificates issued to these communities under the old name not be rejected.
