Allahabad High Court
Nand Lal Gond vs The Tahsildar, Burhanpur & Others on 22 July, 2015
Bench: Krishna Murari, Amar Singh Chauhan
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 3
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 3333 of 1999
Petitioner :- Nand Lal Gond
Respondent :- The Tahsildar, Burhanpur & Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- U.K. Mishra,A.K. Mishra
Counsel for Respondent :- S.C., Irshad Ali
Hon'ble Krishna Murari, J.
Hon'ble Amar Singh Chauhan, J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the State-respondents.
Caste certificate issued to the petitioner certifying that he belongs to Gond community, which is a Schedule Caste, was cancelled by the Tehsildar vide order dated 01.05.1997. Petitioner approached this Court challenging the said order by filing Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 18608 of 1997. A Division Bench of this Court finding that the said order has been passed without any notice and opportunity of hearing quashed the same and remanded the matter back to the authority with direction to pass fresh order after affording reasonable opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.
Pursuant to the order passed by this Court, the matter was reconsidered by the Tehsildar and he passed an order dated 22.10.1997 to the effect that earlier certificate of Scheduled Caste issued to the petitioner was correct. Subsequently, the said order was recalled on an application filed by the complainant. The matter was again heard by the Tehsildar and after perusing the evidence adduced on behalf of the parties vide impugned order dated 12.01.1999, the Tehsildar held that certificate of Scheduled Caste was obtained by the petitioner by concealing the fact and thus cancelled the same. Tehsildar while passing the impugned order has based his finding that petitioner was a member of KAHAR and not Scheduled caste on the basis of school leaving certificate and Khatauni of 1348 F wherein caste of the fore-father of petitioner was mentioned as KAHAR.
Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that High School Certificate, Marks-sheet of Intermediate as well as the marks-sheet issued by Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya records the name of petitioner as Nand Lal Gond and thus, he is a member of Scheduled Caste and ignoring the said evidence Tehsildar has passed a wrong order.
In reply, learned Standing Counsel contends that in the marks-sheet and certificate, being relied upon by the petitioner, only his name is mentioned and there is no column for mentioning the caste. Placing reliance upon Annexure CA '1', which is a transfer certificate issued by the Principal, Patel Memorial Inter College, Atrauliya, Azamgarh which contains column for caste, he submits that in the said certificate, the caste of the petitioner is mentioned as KAHAR. He has also referred to Khatauni of 1348F. filed as Annexure CA '5' which stands in the name of his grand father wherein the caste is mentioned as KAHAR.
We have considered the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.
Allegations made in the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the State and respondent no. 3 alleging that the Khatauni of 1348F in the name of grand father of the petitioner shows the caste as KAHAR has not been denied by the petitioner in the rejoinder affidavit to the counter affidavit of respondent no. 3. No rejoinder affidavit has been filed to the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the State. Since the fore-father of the petitioner were members of KAHAR caste, his caste would not change merely by using sir name 'Gond.''It appears that sir name 'Gond' was added by the petitioner himself while filling in the forms of High School and Intermediate but the school leaving certificate which contains column for recording caste, KAHAR is entered. Apart from above, Tehsildar has also recorded a categorical finding in the impugned order that the earlier caste certificate of Scheduled Caste issued to the petitioner bearing serial no. 436 does not find place in the register and against the said serial number, certificate has been issued in the name of Sanjay Yadav, son of Avadh Narayan and the earlier certificate obtained by the petitioner was forged and fabricated.
The impugned order passed by the Tehsildar is based on appraisal of evidence brought before him by the parties which conclusively established that petitioner belongs to KAHAR caste and was not 'Gond' which is Scheduled Caste.
In view of the above facts and circumstances, we do not find any infirmity in the impugned order requiring any interference.
Writ petition accordingly fails and stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 22.7.2015
Dcs
