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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Rajesh Kumar Pandey | TNN

Allahabad HC quashes UP government orders notifying 18 OBC sub-castes as SCs

PRAYAGRAJ: Ruling that only the Central government has the power to include a caste in the list of scheduled castes, the Allahabad high court on Wednesday cancelled three government orders, issued between 2016 and 2019, through which 18 sub-castes from the other backward classes (OBC) were notified as the SC in Uttar Pradesh.

Allowing a PIL filed by Dr BR Ambedker Granthalaya Evam Jan Kalyan, Gorakhpur and others, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice JJ Munir quashed the three notifications dated December 21, 2016, December 22, 2016 and June 24, 2019.

The first two notifications were issued by the Samajwadi Party government while the BJP government issued the third one during its previous tenure. By these notifications, 18 OBCs were placed in the category of SC. High court had already intervened to stop both the governments from action on these notifications.

The two notifications issued by the SP government were challenged through the above-mentioned PIL on the ground that they were without authority as provided under Article 341 of the Constitution. Article 341 empowers the President to specify castes, races or tribes that will be classified as 'Scheduled Castes' under the Constitution.

While hearing the PIL, the court had passed an interim order in favour of the petitioner and directed the state government not to issue any caste certificate on the basis of these notifications.

However, during the pendency of the PIL, another notification to the same effect was issued on June 24, 2019 by the Yogi Adityanath government. This notification was also challenged and in this case, too, an interim order directing the state government not to issue any caste certificate on the basis of the notification was passed.

On Wednesday, after hearing the counsel for the parties, the court was of the view that “it is the Central government which is empowered to bring a caste in the ambit of Scheduled Castes and the state government has no power in this regard”.

The detailed verdict is awaited.

The sub-castes which the SP and BJP governments intended to include in the SC category were: Majhwar, Kahar, Kashyap, Kevat, Mallah, Nishad, Kumhar, Prajapati, Dheevar, Bind, Bhar, Rajbhar, Dhiman, Batham, Turha, Godia, Manjhi and Machchhua.

Among these, sub-castes like Kevat, Mallah, Bind, Nishad and Manjhi broadly come under the Nishad community, which has been demanding SC status for a long time. Nishad Party, which claims to be representing the community, is part of the NDA alliance since 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Before that it was an ally of the SP.

Similarly, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, claiming to have the support of Rajbhars, was an ally of SP in the 2022 UP elections. But before this, in 2017 assembly polls, it was part of the NDA and its leader OP Rajbhar was also a minister in Yogi 1.0 government before he quit the alliance on the issue of quota within quota for the most backward.

The issue of inclusion of certain OBC sub-castes in the SC list has been lingering for the past 18 years. It was in 2004 that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government amended the UP Public Services Act, 1994, to include as many as 17 OBC sub-castes in the SC category. The Allahabad high court, however, quashed the decision declaring the move unconstitutional and void as it was taken without the consent of the Central government.

The issue was revived when the SP came to power again in 2012.

"In their OBC outreach bid, both SP and BJP have been trying to take certain sub-castes out of the backward bracket, where the competition for the quota pie is much stiffer, and put them in the SC category where fewer strong sub-castes like Jatavs and Passis vie for the reservation," says a political analyst.

Attacking the BJP on the HC decision, Samajwadi Party said that the reservation to the 18 most backward communities got cancelled due to ineffective action in court by the BJP government.

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