Unconstitutional': Union minister criticises UP govt's move to expand SC list

New Delhi: On Tuesday, the Centre described Uttar Pradesh’s decision to include 17 other backward class groups in the list of Scheduled Castes as “unconstitutional”. It also pointed out that proper procedure was not followed by the state government in pushing through the move.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Union minister for social justice and empowerment, Thawar Chand Gehlot, said that including OBC castes in the list of SCs is the exclusive domain of Parliament. He also sought a status report from the Adityanath government and asked it to send a proposal to the Centre on the matter.

“The order that they [UP government] have issued now is not correct, it is unconstitutional. I urge them not to issue any certificates based on this order otherwise the issue will be sent to court,” Gehlot said.

He said that if the UP government wanted to include these castes in the SC list, there is a procedure and should follow that process.

The statement came in response to a submission made by Satish Chandra Misra of the BSP during Zero Hour.

While the state government has defended the move and said that it wanted to create more space for communities which have been unable to benefit from the OBC quota, Misra termed it as a “fraud” and contended that removing these castes from the OBC list would further prevent them from getting benefits.

On June 24, the Uttar Pradesh directed district magistrates and commissioners across the state to issue SC certificates to members of 17 OBC groups – Nishad, Bind, Mallah, Kewat, Kashyap, Bhar, Dhivar, Batham, Machua, Prajapati, Rajbhar, Kahar, Pottar, Dhimar, Manjhi, Tuhaha and Gaur.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is not the first in Uttar Pradesh to try and move these castes to the SC list. In 2005, the Samajwadi Party government of Mulayam Singh Yadav passed an order to include the castes to the SC list from the OBC list, but the order was quashed by the Allahabad high court.