State Govt. Has No Power To Amend Art. 341 List Notified By President: P & H HC Stays Haryana Govt. Notifications Including OBC Community In SC Category [Read Order]

Noting that the state government has no power under Article 341 to specify any caste, race or tribe, or part or group thereof, as Scheduled Caste, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday stayed two notifications of the government of Haryana including the OBC 'Gadaria' community as SC.

The List of Scheduled Castes in Haryana State, as incorporated in the Constitutional Order 1950 (as amended from time to time), includes 'Sansi' as SC. Vide notification dated July 5, 2019 of the state government, the list of De-notified tribes in Haryana State was amended to add 'Gadaria' as a synonym of 'Sansi'. Subsequently, on July 7 this year, another notification was issued to the effect that Scheduled Caste Certificates be issued to the 'Gadaria' caste.

Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha and Justice Arun Palli appreciated that in the cases of State of Maharashtra v. Milind and others (2000) and E.V.Chinnaiah v. State of A.P. and others (2004), the Supreme Court has held that the State Government has no power to amend the list notified under Article 341 of the Constitution of India by the President.

Issuing notice to the state of Haryana, the operation of the impugned orders/notifications issued by the State Government was stayed on Monday by the division bench.

"A number of representations from persons of 'Gadaria' caste have been received by the state government from time to time wherein it is stated that 'Gadaria' is a sub-caste of 'Sansi' and therefore, Schedule Caste certificate should be issued to them", reads the July 7 notification.

Accordingly, the Notification sought to clarify that while issuing Schedule Caste certificates to the persons of 'Gadaria' caste, the caste may be mentioned as Sansi (Gadaria).

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