Writ Petition By One State Department Against Another Not Maintainable: Jharkhand HC Rejects Plea Against Recognition Of 'Tamaria' As ST

The Jharkhand High Court has recently dismissed a plea against the Caste Scrutiny Committee report through which the “Tamaria” caste has been accepted as a sub-caste of the Munda caste and therefore brought under the Scheduled Tribe category. In doing so, the Court held that a writ petition filed by one department of the State against another department of the same State is not maintainable.The plea was filed by Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha Department of the State against the above report prepared under the chairmanship of Secretary to State's Scheduled Tribe Department.The seminal question involved in the writ petition was 'whether a writ petition was maintainable at the instance of a Department of the State against another Department of State?'Justice Gautam Kumar Choudhary, presiding over the case, held, “This Court is of the view that such a writ petition is not maintainable, particularly when Caste Scrutiny Committee has given a definite finding that Tamaria, was a Sub Caste of Munda caste. This is a finding of a fact which cannot be looked into in the exercise of writ jurisdiction. If the State feels that the said finding of fact is flawed, it is open for it to file declaratory suit with regard to the matter.”The matter came to fore, on respondent, Kanu Ram Naag being appointed to the post of Deputy Director against a seat reserved for scheduled tribe candidates through 2nd JPSC examination who claimed himself belonging to Munda caste. A complaint was made in this regard by one Lalji Ram Tiu to the Deputy Commissioner, West Singhbhum and also to the Investigating Officer, Scheduled Tribe Commission, Ranchi in 2013. Thereafter, the Deputy Commissioner, West Singhbhum, Chaibasa called for an enquiry report, and the matter finally went to the Caste Scrutiny Committee which submitted its report on in 2016 stating that Tamaria was sub caste of Munda and therefore, it came within Scheduled Tribe, and subsequently the report was challenged before the High Court by the way of a writ petition.With regard to maintainability, it was argued that State was only a formal party as the report had been signed by the State and the main issue in the writ petition was whether Kanu Ram, who belonged to Tamaria caste could have been accepted as Schedule Tribe.The Department pointed out that although the Caste Scrutiny Committee in its report had found the caste of Kanu Ram Naag i.e. Tamaria, was a Sub Caste of Munda caste, but the Committee had not given any finding as to whether the caste certificate was valid or not. The Department had also found that in terms of Article 342 of the Constitution of India, only those tribes are recognized as Schedule Tribes which have been mentioned in the list published by the Presidential Order under Article 342(1) of the Constitution of India. In the Scheduled Tribe Order, 1950, Mahli and Munda have been placed at Sl. Nos.22 and 24 respectively and in the year 2003, Patar was added in the said list and apart from Munda, Mahli and Patar, no other sub caste of Munda caste is recognized as Scheduled Tribe by the Constitution of India and accordingly it was proposed to get the caste certificate of the Kanu Ram verified by the Caste Scrutiny Committee and the Committee had not given any finding with respect to validity of Caste Certificate of the respondent.It was argued by the counsel on behalf of respondent-State that the Caste Scrutiny Committee after due enquiry held that the Tamarias of Singhbhum are Patar Mundas and they are included in the notification issued by the President under Article 342(1) of the Constitution. Consequently, their inclusion in item no.52 under the heading “backward class” and item no.34 under the heading “very backward class” in Annexure-1 to the writ petition must be struck down.An enquiry was initiated by the Deputy Commissioner, West Singhbhum, leading to the matter being referred to the Caste Scrutiny Committee, which submitted a report on 29.02.2016 stating that “Tamaria” was a sub-caste of “Munda.”However, the Court only focusing on the legal maintainability of a writ petition filed by one State department against another, dismissed the writ petition, ruling that factual determinations made by competent committees could not be interfered with under writ jurisdiction, and accordingly dismissed the writ petition.Case Title: The State of Jharkhand vs The State of JharkhandLL Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Jha) 34Click Here To Read Judgment

Writ Petition By One State Department Against Another Not Maintainable: Jharkhand HC Rejects Plea Against Recognition Of 'Tamaria' As ST

Bhavya Singh

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