ORDER

This is the fourth attempt made by the Lohar Community to get into the status of Lohara. Lohars are, admittedly, blacksmiths, a backward community in the State of Bihar. Loharas are Scheduled Tribes in the State of Bihar.

2. This special leave petition arises from the judgment and order of the Patna High Court, made on October 10, 1996 in LPA No. 831/96. The President of India, in exercise of the power under Article 342(1) of the Constitution read with Article 366(25), notified the Scheduled Tribes for the State of Bihar thus : "such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this Constitution." Thereafter, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act, 1976 came to be made adding to or deleting from the lists certain castes. In Entry 20 of the Entries in relation to the State of Bihar, Lohara was wrongly translated as Lohra and the same was published in the State Gazette notification. That came to be rectified by notification published by the Government on January 6, 1995. In the meanwhile, there was spate of litigation after the 1976 A