Hearing a PIl filed by Jharkhand Buddhijivi Manch against the notification issued by Raghubar Government defining the local residence of the State, a division bench of Jharkhand High Court on Friday issued notice to the State Government directing it to reply within three weeks’ time.
Jharkhand Buddhijivi Manch, in its petition, has made a plea before the HC to quash the notification as it was in violation of Articles 16 (1) 16 (3) and 35 (A) of the Constitution.
“The State Government in spite of defining a local person, has defined local residence of the State which itself is unconstitutional as a State legislature does not have the competence to define local residence. Only the Parliament has the power to define local residence,” said petitioner’s counsel JJ Sanga.
“The State Government under Article 16 (3) of the Constitution does not have power to frame any policy or enactment for determining local residence of a person in any state,” said the advocate.
Sanga further said that when Jharkhand got bifurcated from Bihar in the year 2000, it adopted the ordinance brought by the State of Bihar in 1982. later, an Ordinance was brought in Jharkhand in this regard which was challenged in the Jharkhand High Court in 2002 by way of a PIl, saying the ‘khatian’ could not be the sole basis of determining the local residence in the State, said Sanga.
“While hearing the PIl, the five -Judge bench had quashed the Ordinance passed in the year 2002 with a liberty to the State Government to frame a fresh definition of local residence in the State,” said the advocate.
The notification issued by the State Government on September 26 this year should be quashed and set aside same being ultra vires and in violation of Article 16 (1), 16 (3) and 35(A) of the Constitution of India, Sanga said.