HC sets aside UP Govt order designating Nayak, Ojha as STs

Prayagraj: The Allahabad high court has set aside the order of the state government under which two Gond sub-castes — Nayak and Ojha — were designated in the category of Scheduled Tribes (STs).
While allowing the writ petition filed by Nayak Jan Seva Sansthan, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice Rajendra Kumar held on August 13 that the UP government was not empowered to refer to sub-caste Nayak and Ojha of Gond caste as falling in the category of Scheduled Tribe (ST), thereby interpreting or substituting the 2003 notification of the Central government notifying certain castes as Scheduled Tribes (STs).
In the writ petition, the petitioner’s plea was that the power to issue a notification declaring castes to fall in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category lies with the Central government under Article 342 of the Constitution of India and in pursuant to this, a gazette notification was issued on January 8, 2003, to notify certain castes to be Scheduled Tribes for 13 districts of the state of UP.
Later, on July 15, 2020, a notification was issued by the state government while naming some castes in 13 districts of the state as per a notification of 2003. It further added that the two sub-castes of Gond, i.e., Nayak and Ojha be included in the category of Scheduled Tribes.
The petitioner argued that such reference was not in the domain of the state government as it cannot tinker or substitute the notification of 2003 published in the Gazette under Article 342 of the Constitution of India.
On the other hand, the state government plea was that the order of 2020 was in consonance to the Gazette notification dated January 8, 2003, and the necessity to issue the order under challenge was due to the malpractices adopted by some persons to take caste certificate fraudulently claiming to be a candidate of Gond caste.
It was argued by the counsel of the state government that the order had wrongly been taken as an order either for interpretation or substitution of the Gazette Notification of the Government of India.
On this submission of the state government, the court clarified that while issuing caste certificates in favour of reserve caste candidates of the Gond category, the state government would be at liberty to make proper scrutiny of the application so that caste certificate may not be taken fraudulently by any person.
The court after hearing concerned parties allowed the petition and set aside the state government order of July 15, 2020.