How is the Kudmi community in the OBC list? Supreme Court seeks answer from the Central Government

The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday heard the case of Jharkhand Aboriginal Kudmi Panch vs Central Government and others. During the hearing on the petition of the Kudmi community, the court asked the Central Government under which constitutional provision or law the Kudmi community was included in the list of Other Backward Classes (OBC).

The court has directed the Central Government to file an affidavit in this regard. At the same time, a petition filed by Jharkhand Kshatriya Pahad Committee was rejected by the court. On Wednesday, the petition was heard in the bench of Justice Rajesh Shankar of Jharkhand High Court.

The petition was filed by Jharkhand Aboriginal Kudmi Panch
This petition was filed by Jharkhand Aboriginal Kudmi Panch, in which the Central Government was asked to clarify what is the constitutional basis for keeping the Kudmi community in the OBC list.

Meanwhile, a person named Ajit Oraon had filed a petition on behalf of Jharkhand Kshatriya Pahad Samiti urging the court to withdraw its order of April 8, 2024. He argued that the court had passed this order without hearing the Jharkhand Kshatriya Pahad Samiti.

‘Neither against the Center, nor any private organization’

However, advocate Akashdeep, on behalf of the Kudmi community, argued in the court that their writ petition is basically against the central government and not any private organization.

He said that the Kudmi community just wants to know under which constitutional provision the government has included them in OBC. If the government gives a clear answer to this question, the dispute will automatically end.

The advocate also told the court that despite repeated instructions, the central government has not been able to file any reply till now. On this, the court dismissed the petition of Jharkhand Kshatriya Pahad Samiti as baseless and accepted the petition of the Kudmi community for hearing on merit.