Allahabad HC strikes down inclusion of OBC castes in SC list

Allahabad High Court has quashed the state government's notification to include 18 other backward castes in the Scheduled Caste list after a petitioner filed a PIL in the court.

Prayagraj:In a setback to Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government, the Allahabad High Court has quashed the state government's notification to include 18 other backward castes in the Scheduled Caste list. Announcing the verdict, the HC came up with a comment and said that despite not having constitutional rights, the list of Scheduled Castes is being reshuffled repeatedly for political gains in UP.

"Only the Parliament of the country has the right to change the list of Scheduled Castes, not the Central or state governments," the court said. The Yogi-led government had issued a notification on June 24, 2019, to include 18 OBC castes including Kumhar, Kevat, Mallah, Dhimar, Batham, Kahar, Kashyap, Bhar, Rajbhar etc in the Scheduled Caste list.

Earlier, similar notifications were also issued by the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in 2005 and the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP dispensation in 2016. A petitioner named Harisharan Gautam, president of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Granthralaya and Jankalyan Samiti filed a PIL in the Allahabad High Court challenged the government notification, following which a division bench led by Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice JJ Munir ruled that the state government does not have the power to alter the Scheduled Caste list and therefore quashed the notification issued by it.