- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) Validity of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Orders 2nd Amendment 2002, whereby and whereunder the Mochis outside the Dang District and Umargaon Taluka of Valsad District in the State of Gujarat were excluded from Schedule I to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 , was in question before the Gujarat High Court. Its validity has been upheld by the High Court holding : "29. For the foregoing reasons, the challenge of the petitioner against the impugned Amendment Act of 2002 and the imposition of area restriction in respect of the Mochi caste as done in the varied entry 4 of the Order of 1950, as well as against the impugned Government Resolution dated 18.2.2003 fails and the contentions raised on behalf of the petitioner and the supporting respondent No. 10 have no substance. The petition is, therefore, rejected. Rule is discharged. There shall be no order as to costs."
(3.) Article 341 of the Constitution of India reads as under : "341. Scheduled Castes- (1) The President may with respect to any State or Union Territory, and where it is a State after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be. (2) Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Castes specified in a notification issued under Cl. (1) any caste, race or tribe or part of or group within any caste, race or tribe, but save as aforesaid notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.";