Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Friday ruled "invalid" and "void", the notification issued by the then Mayawati government for creating new district Chatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar, presently known as Amethi.
The full bench comprising Justices Devi Prasad Singh, Shabihul Hasnain and D K Arora pronounced this judgement on the petition of Manoj Kumar Rastogi and others challenging the notification of July 1, 2010 on the grounds that as census was underway, creation of a new district before its completion was illegal.
The court in its judgement said, "the issuance of the impugned notification though administrative in nature but is violative of directives issued by the central government under rule 8 (4) of the census rules, 1990 as such barred by article 246 (1) of the constitution, hence invalid"
The court said that "there is apparent inconsistency in two acts namely Census Act 1948 and the rules framed there under and the UP Land Revenue Act a state enactment in the reference to section 11 with regard to creation of district."
"Both are irreconcilable and in any case the conflict cannot be reconciled hence during census operation notification under section 11 of the UP Land Revenue Act cannot be issued and if issued shall be invalid and void," it said.
Earlier, the matter was heard by a two-judge bench but due to difference in opinion it was referred to the larger bench.
The then Mayawati government has created a new district carving out three tehsils of Sultanpur (Musafirkhana, Amethi and Gauriganj) and two from Rae Bareli (Salon and Tiloi).
Meanwhile, a report from Amethi said that `Amethi Zila Banao Sangharsh Samiti" has decided to appraoch the Supreme Court to challenge today`s judgement .
President of the samiti Uma Shankar Pandey said that since the judgement is against local sentiments, the apex court would be approached soon.
PTI
