DEVIDAS BABURAO HAJARE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A common question which we are called upon to consider in these two writ petitions under Art.226 of the Constitution is the controversy concerning the caste claim made by the petitioners. Petitioner 1. Devidas Baburao Hajare is the under of petitioner 2 Sangita, in Writ Petition No. 261 of 1987, and petitioner 2 Kavita, in writ Petition No. 887 of 1987. Petitioners claim that they belong to Gadi-Lohar community which is included in the list of the Nomadic Tribes. Respondents 1 and 2 in both the writ petitions controvert the petitioner's claim.

(2.) The core and conscience of the Constitution is to ensure justice, social, economic and political to the people of this vast and great country among whom millions and millions are the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes who are the ligitimate beneficiaries of an elaborate system of "compensatory discrimination" which gives them special and preferential treatment, among other things, in the field of education so that they may meaningfully participate in the mainstream of national life.

(3.) Article 15(4) of the Constitution lays down that nothing shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally Backward Classes or the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Articles 46 provides that State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker Sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. The Presidential Orders 1950, made under Arts. 341 and 342 by public notification specify Castes and Tribes which shall for the purposes of the Constitution be deemed to be the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the said list any Caste or Tribe. By Government Circular, Education and Social Welfare Department No. CBC-1470/10269-J. D/-14-8-1970, a community known as Gadi-Lohar was included in the list of the Nomadic Tribes in so far as it related to the State of Maharashtra.