Former Mayor's plea against disqualification dismissed

Nagpur, July 11 (UNI) A plea by former mayor Devrao Umredkar and eight other members of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) against their disqualification on the ground that their claim of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status was invalid, was rejected by the High Court here today.

A division bench, consisting of Justice A H Joshi and Justice R C Chavan, rejected the petition, saying there was no need for the court to intervene in the matter.

The bench declared the operative part of the judgement in the court, and said the reasons for the ruling would be recorded separately.

Mr Umredkar and others had challenged an order of the caste scrutiny committee, holding them ineligible for reservation meant for STs on the ground that their caste was not 'Halba', but 'Koshti'.

While 'Halba' is a Scheduled Tribe, 'Koshti' is not.

The nine members, from the ruling as well as opposition parties, were later disqualified. It was for the first time in the history of NMC that a sitting mayor had been disqualified on such ground.

Besides Mr Umredkar, the others who were disqualified included Sanjay Pimprikar, Pushpa Pathrabe, Sharad Bhanarkar, Vilas Parate, all from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Parshuram Bokade, Bhimrao Nandanwar, Bhaskar Burde (all Shiv Sena) and Jaymala Barapatre (Congress).

Mr Umredkar was elected Mayor after the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance swept to power in the civic elections last February.

The nine councillors had filed their nominations from wards reserved for ST candidates and had submitted certificates accordingly.

Candidates, getting elected from ST wards, have to obtain validity certificates from the scrutiny committee within a stipulated period of time, failing which, they face disqualification.

Incidentally, after the High Court ruling, the civic administration here has scheduled a fresh election for the mayoral post on July 16.

UNI