Prayagraj 1st, September : In a significant change the Allahabad high court has declared ineffective three government orders that were issued between 2016 and 2019, in which 18 sub-castes of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) were designated as Schedule Caste (SC) in Uttar Pradesh.The Allahabad high court decided that the Central government is the only one with the authority to include the caste in the list of SC.
In granting the filing of a PIL that was filed by B.R.Ambedker Granthalaya Evam Jan Kalyan Gorakhpur and other parties, a division bench comprised of the Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice J.J.Munir quashed the three notifications issued on December 21 December 22, 2016 and 26, and June 24, 2019.
The first two notifications were issued by Samajwadi Party (SP) government while the BJP government issued the third notification during its previous term.
With these notifications 18 OBCs were put in the class of SC.The High Court has already intervened to prevent both governments from taking making any action regarding these notifications.
Two of the notifications made by the SP government were contested by the above-mentioned PIL in the belief that they were in violation of authority as per Article 341 of the Constitution.
Article 341 allows the President to define tribes, castes, or races that are classified as “SC” under the Constitution.
In the course of conducting the PIL The court made an interim decision in favor of the petitioner.It also directed the government of the state not to issue a caste certificate based on the basis of these notifications.
However during the time of the pendency of the PIL, a second notice of the same nature was issued on the 24th of June in 2019 by the Yogi Adityanath government.This was also challenged and in this instance as well an interim order instructing the state government to not issue a caste certificate based on the basis of the notification was approved.
On Wednesday, following the hearing of the lawyers for both parties the court was of the opinion that “it is the Central government that is able to establish an appeal in the scope of SC and that the state government is not given authority in this in this regard”.
The final verdict is still to be announced.
The sub-castes were included in the SP as well as BJP governments hoped to place in the SC category included Majhwar, Kahar, Kashyap, Kevat, Mallah, Nishad, Kumhar, Prajapati, Dheevar, Bind, Bhar, Rajbhar, Dhiman, Batham, Turha, Godia, Manjhi and Machhua.
Of these, sub-castes like Kevat, Mallah, Bind, Nishad and Manjhi broadly fall under the Nishad community that has been requesting SC status for quite some time.
Nishad Party, which claims to represent the people of this community, has been a part of the NDA alliance since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.In the past, it was an all-weather ally of the SP.
In the same way as similarly, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, which claims to have the backing of Rajbhars and SP, was an all-weather partner of SP in 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections and prior to that it was a part of the NDA and its leader O.P.Rajbhar was also Minister in the Yogi government.
The issue of the inclusion of specific OBC sub-castes in the SC list has been in the air for the last 18 years.
It was in 2004 that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government changed the Uttar Pradesh Public Services Act 1994, which included up to 17 OBC sub-castes in the SC category.
The Allahabad high court, however, struck down the decision , declaring it in violation of the Constitution and null and void because it was not taken with the approval of the Central government.
The issue was resurrected after the SP returned to power in 2012.
“In their OBC outreach both SP and BJP have been trying to get some sub-castes of the backward bracket where competition for pie of quotas is more stiff and put them in the SC category, where less powerful sub-castes such as Jatavs and Pasi compete for reservation,” says a political analyst.
In a scathing attack on the BJP on the HC decision, SP said that the reservation for the 18 communities with the highest backwardness was cancelled because of the ineffective actions in the court taken by the BJP government.
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