PEEDIKA RAJANNA DORA Vs. RAJENDRA PRATHAP BHANJ DEO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This election petition has been filed by Peedika Rajanna Dora, an unsuccessful candidate, challenging the election of Rajendra Prathap Bhanj Deo-1st respondent as a member of "10 Salur (ST) Legislative Assembly Constituency". A further declaration has been sought for to declare the election petitioner as duly elected to "10 Salur (ST) Legislative Assembly Constituency".

(2.) The victory of our long drawn struggle for freedom from the British yoke came to us after one and a half century of perpetual and constant efforts soaked in cold blood and dipped in supreme sacrifice. The historical midnight of August 15th, 1947, which ushered in a new era, was merely a completion of a phase and not the end of epoch but only the beginning of the end. Soon thereafter the wise wizards and the founding fathers of our Constitution set out to devote their wholehearted attention to devise ways and means to give to our subcontinent a solid and comprehensive Constitution, which may solve multifarious and manifold difficulties, fulfill the burning needs of the nation and sort out complex and complicated problems which arose after our hard-won freedom which must have baffled our leaders. There was the question of achieving a secular democracy, the largest in the world, based on a socialist pattern which would take care of all sorts and kinds of people having different cultures, languages and religions; to confer and guarantee fundamental rights of citizens through mandatory provisions, to lay down Directive Principles of State Policy which were to be the guiding spirit of the Constitution, the question of achieving agrarian reform by displacing the old British bureaucratic system and substituting a new order, the issue of reconciling the irreconcilable and various other thorny and tricky matters. One of the important objectives to be translated into action was to take special care of the Backward Classes and members of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes by bringing them to the fore through pragmatic reforms and providing adequate opportunities for their amelioration and development, education, employment and the like. As Mahatma Gandhi, father of the Nation, said "India lives in villages" and so do the Backward Classes, hence the primary task was to take constructive steps in order to boost up these classes by giving them adequate concessions, opportunities, facilities and representation in the services and, last but not the least, in the electorate so that their voices and views, grievances and needs in the Parliament, State Legislatures in the country may be heard, felt and fulfilled.

(3.) The Constitution makers to accord favoured treatment to the lower castes who were at the bottom of the scale of social values and who were afflicted by social and economic disabilities provided that the President may specify the castes and these would obviously be the lower castes which had suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation, as it was believed, that the higher castes would not properly represent the interest of these lower castes. Under Article 332 of the Constitution, seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assemblies of the States. Under Article 342 of the Constitution the President after consultation with the Governors of the respective States gives public notification specifying the tribal communities, which are deemed to be the Scheduled tribes in relation to the respective States. Parliament has power by law to include or exclude any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any Tribe or tribal community from the list of Scheduled Tribes specified in the President's Order.