Nand Kishore vs State of Uttarakhand & another

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.

The petitioner admittedly belongs to a community known as “bhogta†which is notified as a Scheduled Caste Community, as is given in the

Presidential Order of 1950, which is an order pertaining to State of Bihar. After the creation of the State of Jharkhand from the erstwhile territory of

Bihar, the “bhogta†community is also notified as a Scheduled Caste Community in State of Jharkhand, and thus, the caste “bhogta†is not

only notified as a Scheduled Caste Community in the State of Bihar but in the State of Jharkhand as well.

Admittedly, the caste “bhogta†is not notified as a Scheduled Caste community either in the State of Uttar Pradesh or in the State of

Uttarakhand, which was carved out from the territory of the State of Uttar Pradesh by the Parliament under the U.P. Reorganization Act, 2000.

The case of the petitioner is that he was born in the territory of the State of Uttarakhand in the year 1976 and since then he has been residing in the

State and received a permanent resident certificate. The petitioner has made two prayers before this Court. Firstly, that a direction be given to the

authorities to grant him a scheduled caste certificate and thereafter issue a mandamus to the State to notify the caste “bhogta†as a scheduled

caste for the State of Uttarakhand.

This writ petition is totally misconceived and has no legs to stand on. The entire petition is based on misconception. Scheduled Caste is defined

under Article 366 (24) of the Constitution of India which reads as under:

“Scheduled Castes†means such castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within such castes, races or tribes as are deemed under article 341

to be Scheduled Castes for the purpose of this Constitution;â€​

Article 341 of the Constitution of India thereafter defines as to how the scheduled caste is to be declared. Article 341 of the Constitution of India

reads as under:-

“341. Scheduled Castes.- (1) The President may with respect to any State or Union territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the

Governor, thereof, by public notification, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall for the

purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be.

(2) Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Castes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any caste, race or

tribe or part of or group within any caste, race or tribe, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any

subsequent notification.â€​

Consequent to the above provision, the President of India in consultation with the Governor of the State of Bihar at the relevant time, declared

“bhogtaâ€​ as a Scheduled Caste community only for the State of Bihar and for no other State.

Admittedly, in case any change has to be made in the Schedule or any other caste is to be included therein, these powers have been given under the

Constitution of India to no other body but to the Parliament alone.

Prayers as sought by the petitioner cannot be granted to him for the reasons that “bhogta†caste to which the petitioner belongs is not notified

as a scheduled caste for the State of Uttarakhand and as such Scheduled Caste Certificate cannot be granted to him merely because the caste is

notified for the State of Bihar and Jharkhand. Such benefits can only be granted to the persons belonging to their caste in the State of Bihar and

Jharkhand and not in the State of Uttarakhand.

The prayer as sought by the petitioner is totally misconceived. The writ petition has no merit and it is hereby dismissed in limine.