Tribal communities move HC against Chhattisgarh CS, GAD secretary on ST reservation issue

Raipur

Tribal communities have filed a contempt petition in the High Court making chief secretary of Chhattisgarh government as party in the tribal reservation case that has been reduced to 20 % from 32%. The tribes blame the state government for the itsfailure to put the case of tribal strongly in the high court.

The petition has been filed against Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain and Secretary General Administration Department DrKamalpreet Singh by Manoj Kumar Maravi of the AdivasiSamaj. The court is yet to admit the petition.

It was said on behalf of the petitioner that both the officers ran the reservation roster contrary to the decision of the High Court. Through this, there was talk of giving 16% reservation to Scheduled Castes, 20% to Scheduled Tribes and 14% to Other Backward Classes. In their understanding, this roster is illegal. Therefore, he has filed this petition on Monday through advocate Priyasdeep Singh. The Director of Medical Education had released a new roster on October 9. This roster was given for admission in medical. Earlier, Yogesh Thakur, a petitioner who went against the reservation decision in the Supreme Court, had sent a legal notice of contempt to the state government.

Through advocate George Thomas, this legal notice was sent to the Chief Secretary, the Secretary of the General Administration Department and the Secretary of the Department of Law and Legislative Affairs. It was made clear that due to the decision of the Bilaspur High Court on September 19, reservation in jobs and educational institutions has completely ended. This was not clarified in the circular issued by the General Administration Department on September 29. The departments were asked to take necessary action only by giving a copy of the High Court order. It was said in the notice that GAD and other departments will have to tell immediately that no reservation will be available in public services and educational institutions till any new act, ordinance or circular is issued by the state government. The petitioner said that if the government did not do so within a week, he would file a case of contempt of court.

In the notice sent to the officers last week, Yagesh Thakur’s lawyer had also tried to clear the confusion. It was said that with the decision of September 19, reservation has been abolished in the state. Perhaps the government has been confused because of the Constitution Bench’s decision in the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association vs Union of India case. It said that the situation immediately before the repealed provisions will be restored. But the Constitution Bench itself, B.N. The general principle of interpretation has been presented in the case of Tiwari v Union of India. According to this, if a law is amended, the old law lapses. In such a situation, if the amendment law is repealed, then the law before that will not be revived. That is, before the cancellation of the reservation law of 2011, the situation before that will not be restored. This situation does not even come in exceptions.

The state government had changed the reservation ratio in 2012. In this, the reservation of Scheduled Tribes category was increased from 20 to 32%. At the same time, the reservation for Scheduled Castes was reduced from 16% to 12%. This was challenged by the Guru Ghasidas Sahitya and Sanskriti Akademiin the High Court. Later many more petitions were filed.

The Chhattisgarh High Court, while ruling on this on September 19, quashed the section of the Reservation Acts of the state, in which the proportion of reservation has been told. Due to this the system of reservation came into trouble.

The result of the recruitment examinations has been withheld. Exams were postponed. For counseling, the government tried to restore the old system before 2012 by issuing a temporary roster. Meanwhile, five people from tribal society reached the Supreme Court. The court refused to grant an adjournment. Finally the state government filed an appeal. The entire tribal society has boycotted the Rajyotsava.