The Mayawati Government in Uttar Pradesh suffered a setback on Thursday with the Supreme Court refusing to interfere at this stage with the Allahabad High Court order staying the notification naming a district after Dalit leader Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj.
The district has been carved out of the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency represented by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The appeal filed by the U.P. Government against the August 18 order of the High Court was mentioned before a Bench of Justice R. V. Raveendran and Justice H. L Gokhle seeking stay of its operation.
The Bench without staying the impugned order at this stage issued notices to the three respondents, Manoj Kumar and others (petitioners before the High Court), on whose petitions the interim stay order was passed. The Bench posted the special leave petition for further hearing on September 1.
The High Court had stayed the operation, implementation and execution of the notification dated July 1 till further orders of the Court or till March 31, 2011, whichever was earlier. The SLP is directed against this order.
The SLP said the High Court was not justified in passing the interim order on the ground that the State Government could not issue the notification in violation of its earlier notification dated December 22, 2009, for the reason that the later notification was in the teeth of the former notification.
The impugned order amounted to interference in legislative powers of the State Government under the Land Revenue Act to create new or abolish the existing divisions or districts, it argued.
The State Government performed its Constitutional obligation in public interest and there was no illegality or violation of any notification in exercising its power. The SLP sought quashing of the impugned order and an interim stay of its operation.
