HIRDESH DEVI Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) It is the claim of the petitioner that she belongs to the caste Dhangar, which is a Scheduled Caste community, as is given in the Presidential Order of 1950, which is an order related to the Uttar Pradesh. It is true that in the said order passed under clause (1) of Article 341 of the Constitution of India, Dhangar is placed in the Scheduled Caste community in the erstwhile State of Uttar Pradesh. After creation of the State of Uttarakhand by the Parliament under the U.P. Reorganization Act, 2000, Dhangar is a Scheduled Caste in the State of Uttarakhand as well. In other words, Dhangar is a Scheduled Caste community.

(2.) Article 341 of the Constitution of India reads as under:

(3.) Petitioner was elected as Pradhan of Village Aurangabad, Tehsil and District Haridwar. The present private respondent no. 6, who is also a member of the Scheduled Caste community, made a complaint with the State authorities, which was ultimately referred to the State Government claiming that the petitioner is not a member of the Scheduled Caste community, but in fact, she is a member of Other Backward Castes (OBC) as by trade, the petitioner is a Gadariya, i.e. shepherd, and the petitioner has wrongly claimed to be a member of the Scheduled Caste community. The matter was referred to the Scrutiny Committee which came to the conclusion that the petitioner's brother has been given the OBC Certificate and therefore the petitioner also belongs to OBC community, and not to the Scheduled Caste community.