NEW DELHI: Centre has waived a red flag at Haryana’s decision to remove the names of three castes from the Scheduled Castes list and issue them caste certificates under other communities, telling the state that any inclusion to or exclusion from the SC list is the Parliament’s prerogative. The state has also been told that a SC caste can only be given affirmative action benefits like reservation in its own name and not under any other group, even if it is part of the same sub-social bloc.
The negative order is in response to Haryana’s recent request to Centre that it should drop the names of ‘Chura’, ‘Bhangi’ and ‘Mochi’ from the list of SC communities for the state. As reported by TOI, the state has argued that the three names are “objectionable and irrelevant”, in a move designed to end the usage of caste names that are widely deployed as pejoratives.
To buttress its claim, Haryana had in its letter attached a 2013 state govt order in which it had announced that ‘Chura, Bhangi’ and ‘Mochi’ have been deleted from the local SC list, and the communities will be issued caste certificates in the name of ‘Balmiki’ and ‘Chamar’, respectively. The more than a decade old state govt order was addressed to all senior authorities of Haryana, especially the field administrators whose domain includes the process of issuing caste certificates.
The proposal and the argument, however, have not found favour with Centre. Union social justice and empowerment ministry is learnt to have recently replied to Haryana that its 2013 order is “impermissible”, and urged it to bring the circular in consonance with the Article 341 of the Constitution – which says that the power of inclusion in, and exclusion from, the SC list lies with the Parliament.
