Nagpur: After over two years of celebrating a protracted legal victory at the high court, the Gowari community suffered a setback on Friday at the Supreme Court.
The apex court reversed the 2018 judgement by the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court which had held that Gowaris are an independent community and paved the way for them to claim constitutional status as Scheduled Tribe.
Advocate Ram Parsodkar, who represented the petitioners in the 2018 case, and was part of the legal team at the SC, said a review of the judgement is imminent. “We will definitely be going ahead with the legal remedy available to us, and that’s of praying for a review of the SC judgement,” said Parsodkar.
In the Centre’s Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) order, there is no separate entry for Gowaris. The only time the community is mentioned is through an entry called “Gond Gowari”. It was included in the list in 1956 and this meant that Gowaris were considered a sub-tribe/caste of the Gond community. Any Gowari community member who wanted to get an ST certificate had to prove his affinity with Gonds to the authorities.
But does such a community called ‘Gond Gowari’ even exist? Shalik Neware, coordinator of the umbrella group of various Gowari organizations in Maharashtra, says no.
“The tribe Gond Gowari ceased to exist in 1911 and that’s proven through government records. Somehow, it lands up in government documents in 1956 and that’s how the entry in the constitutional list appears. Gond-Gowari as mentioned in the Centre’s list is basically Gowari,” said Neware, who is also one of the petitioners in the case.
Adivasi Gowari Jamaat Sanghatan Samanvay Samiti (Maharashtra) has been trying to get the ‘Gowari’ word as a separate entry in the Centre’s list. There was a time, when it almost happened.
Parsodkar said, “In 1967, the proposal was cleared by the state government and was due to come up in Parliament. Unfortunately, the session got prorogued and the bill lapsed. Since then, the Gowaris have been fighting for their rights. The Gowari stampede tragedy, which happened in Nagpur in the 90s, was one of the dark moments in their history.”
He added that the SC relied on a 2000 judgement which held that the constitutional list is sacrosanct. “Actually, there were two previous conflicting judgements and under one of those, we felt that this Gond Gowari issue could have been explored. The SC went with the latest one, and said that the list has to be read as it is,” said Parsodkar.
Neware says his phone has been ringing incessantly since the SC judgement. “Since 2018, many of our people have been able to avail benefits meant for the ST category. So, many poor people have got homes in villages under the Gharkul scheme along with the other benefits. Now, it’s back to square one,” said Neware.