BIHARLOHAR SCHEDULETRIBES UTTHAN MAHASABHASAMASTIPUR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) C. W. J. C. No. 12153/93 was directed to be listed today along with other similar matters' referred to above. By mistake it has not been listed. Let it be treated as on day's list along with other similar matters. All these matters are being disposed of by this common judgment and order.

(2.) It is unfortunate that a controversy has been allowed to be raised on a point by a Division Bench of this Court by way of differing from another earlier Division Bench of this Court and that again after the earlier Division Bench has been affirmed by the Supreme Court in an appeal arising out of the same. The question in volved in all these matters before us and in earlier Division Bench and Supreme Court judgments is whether a person who is

(3.) The short point raised in this appeal is as to whether the Central Administrative Tribunal was right in holding that the appellant did not belong to the Lohar community which has now been declared as a Scheduled Tribe in Chapra District of Bihar. It is not disputed that from 1976 onwards the community has been so included but according to the Postal Department of Union of India, at the time when the appellant entered service, the community had not been so included and, therefore, the recruitment on the footing that he was a member of a Scheduled Tribe entitled to reservation was bad. We have looked into the records and have heard counsel for the parties. In view of the accepted position that Lohar Community is included in the Scheduled Tribe from the date of amendment of the list in 1976 and the dispute as to whether the community was known as "Lohar" or if it was the latter, it has been so included before. we do not think the Tribunal was justified in holding the view it has taken.