‘Lohar’ caste of Bihar not Scheduled Tribe: Supreme Court quashes Bihar govt notification

The Supreme Court recently held that Lohar caste is not a Scheduled Tribe (STs) under the Central government's list of STs and consequently, a notification by the Bihar government to issue Scheduled Tribe certificates to the Lohar community is liable to be quashed [Sunil Kumar Rai and ors v. The State of Bihar and ors]..A Bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy noted that the inclusion of persons otherwise disentitled in the category of Scheduled Tribes would directly affect the rights, including towards public employment, of entitled members of the category.“In this case, it is clear as daylight that the Lohar were not included as members of the Scheduled Tribe right from the beginning and they were, in fact, included as members of the OBCs in the state of Bihar,” the Bench held. .By way of background, in 1950 the Central government's list of communities eligible for reservation did not include ‘Lohar’ under Scheduled Tribes. The list at serial number 20 included the tribe “Lohara” as a Scheduled Tribe for the State of Bihar. In 1976, the the parliament brought the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Act, in the English version of which there was status quo with respect to Lohars, but in the Hindi version the words “Lohara” and “Lohra” were translated to “Lohar” and “Lohra”. After this amendment act, the members of the Lohar community started claiming to be a Scheduled Tribe. In 2006, the parliament through an amendment act substituted the Hindi translation from ‘Lohar, Lohra’ to ‘Lohara, Lohra’. In 2016, parliament passed a connected repealing act and status quo was restored..The Bihar government decided to include Lohars in the Scheduled Tribes list through a August 2016 notification. The petitioners in the present case then filed the plea as their bail applications had been rejected due to the stringent provisions of the Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), which came as a result of the complainants being Lohars and thus now recognised as STs. .The Supreme Court hearing referred to its decision in Nityanand Sharma and anr v. State of Bihar wherein it had answered the question whether Lohars could be considered by the Court as synonyms to Loharas or Lohras and had answered in the negative. “Lohars are an other backward class. They are not Scheduled Tribes and the cannot give any declaration that Lohars are equivalent to Loharas or Lohras or that they are entitled to the same status. Any contrary view taken by any bench/benches of Bihar High Court, is erroneous” the top court had held in that judgment..The decision in Vinay Prakash and ors v. State of Bihar and ors was also discussed, wherein the apex court held that Lohars are blacksmiths, a backward community in the State of Bihar but cannot be included in the Scheduled Tribes list..Regarding the difference between the Hindi and English translations, the Supreme Court referred to its decision in Prabhat Kumar Sharma v. Union Public Services Commission and ors. where it had held that Article 348 of the Constitution clearly provides English to be the authoritative text in respect of Acts of parliament, amendments to Acts subject to any law made by parliament."From a conjoint reading of Article 348 of the Constitution and Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Languages Act, 1963, English continues to remain the authoritative text in respect of the Acts of Parliament,” the Prabhat Kumar judgment had said. .The Supreme Court thus reiterated that it has been clearly and unequivocally declared that Lohars are not members of the Scheduled Tribe and they are members of the OBCs. Lohars are not Lohara and including Lohars alongside Lohara is clearly illegal and arbitrary, the Bench emphasised. “This position has attained articulation at the hands of this Court and this Court has traced the history of the matter in the decision in Prabhat Kumar Sharma,” the Bench added. .The Bench was anguished by the actions of the Bihar government to include Lohars in the Scheduled Tribes list despite the precedents of the Court rejecting the said contention. “Respect for the decisions of the Courts holding the field are the very core Rule of Law. Disregard or neglecting the position at law expounded by the Courts would spell doom for a country which is governed by the Rule of Law,” the Court stated..On the translation argument, the Bench observed that ignoring precedents attracts the 'wrath' of Article 14 (equality before the law).“The English text which has been held to be the authoritative text and the decisions of this Court have been ignored. We cannot at all, approve this approach which at the very minimum betrays total non-application of mind which, in turn, leads to an inference that it has been arrived in an arbitrary manner,” the Court made it clear..The Bihar government ignored the consequences of the notification, and its implications towards affecting the rights of those people who stand in the shoes of the accused as even anticipatory bail is not permitted under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure read with Section 18 and 18A of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. .The Court thus quashed the notification with respect to its applicability towards Lohars but clarified that Loharas will continue to enjoy benefits under the notification. The Court also ordered that adequate compensation must be provided to the petitioners. “In the facts and circumstances of this case, we would think that an amount of ₹5 lakh must be imposed as costs," the Court ruled..The petitioners were directed to approach an appropriate forum for their other reliefs sought and remedies against the proceedings against them.Towards this, the Bench added, "necessarily, the Courts will take note of the pronouncement which we have made today.".M/s Ranjan and Company filed the case on behalf of the petitioner. Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar appeared for the respondents..[Read Judgment]