By the Court.—The question in this case turns on, ‘whether the persons shifted from the list of notified Scheduled Castes to the notified list of Scheduled Tribes, under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Act, 2002 (Act No. 10/2003), under Article 342 of the Constitution of India, can be deprived of their constitutional rights under Article 243-D, of proportional representation in Panchayat elections, on the ground, that their numbers for giving them representation for reservation in the seats of Chairpersons of village panchayats is not available with the State Government, from the Census 2001 figures; and whether any other empirical data can be relied upon to fulfil the constitutional mandate.’

2. We have heard Shri L.P. Singh; Shri P.K. Kashyap and Shri Vivek Saran for the petitioners. Shri Satish Chaturvedi, Additional Advocate General assisted by Shri Y.S. Bohra and Dr. Y.S. Srivastava for the respondents.

3. ‘Pradeshiya Jan Jati Vikas Manch’ a social service organization through its president Shri Munshi Prasad Gond, and ‘Adiwasi Vikas Samiti’ through its Secretary Shri Shrawan Kumar Gond, have filed these writ petitions in public interest for