RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh High Court on Tuesday refused to hear the plea challenging the tribal status of Amit Jogi, son of former chief minister Ajit Jogi. Amit is an MLA from the reserved schedule tribe (ST) seat of Marwahi in Bilaspur district.
“Judge Sanjay K Agrawal has referred the case to the chief justice with a request to fix hearing on an appropriate bench,” said Satish Chandra Verma, the counsel for former BJP MP and chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) Nand Kumar Sai who filed the petition against Amit.
Sources said judge Agrawal had earlier appeared for Ajit Jogi in a case, so citing it as a personal reason, he referred it to the chief justice for shifting it to another bench.
A high-powered scrutiny committee constituted on the directive of the High Court in June to examine Amit Jogi’s caste legitimacy rejected his claim.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician cited his caste as ‘Kanwar’ tribe. The writ petition filed by Sai pointed out that Jogi has been claiming the tribal status through “forged” evidences.
In a separate hearing, the bench of justice Rajindra Singh Samant, hearing a plea seeking a CBI probe into the issue and Amit Jogi’s birthplace, served notices to ten respondents including union home ministry, NCST, state governments of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the state police, Bilaspur collector and tehsildar of Pendra.