Bombay High Court
Ruchir Vijaya Nandanwar vs Govt Of Mah & Othrs on 20 July, 2016
Bench: B.P. Dharmadhikari
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
NAGPUR BENCH
WRIT PETITION NO. 5743 OF 2004
AND
WRIT PETITION NO. 1548 OF 2005
WRIT PETITION NO. 5743 OF 2004
Ruchir Vijay Nandanwar,
aged 20 years, r/o Nagpur
District - Nagpur. ... PETITIONER
Versus
1. Government of Maharashtra,
through its Secretary,
Tribal Development Department,
Mantralaya, Mumbai 32.
2. Committee for Scrutiny and
Verification of Tribe Claims,
through its Chairman &
Additional Commissioner,
Tribal Development,
Amravati, Dist. Amravati. ... RESPONDENTS
WRIT PETITION NO. 1548 OF 2005
Animesh Vijay Nandanwar,
aged 28 years, r/o Nagpur
District - Nagpur. ... PETITIONER
Versus
1. Government of Maharashtra,
through its Secretary,
Tribal Development Department,
Mantralaya, Mumbai 32.
2. Committee for Scrutiny and
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Verification of Tribe Claims,
through its Chairman &
Additional Commissioner,
Tribal Development,
Amravati, Dist. Amravati. ... RESPONDENTS
Shri Y.P. Kaslikar, Advocate for the petitioners.
Shri N.R. Patil, AGP for the respondents.
.....
CORAM : B.P. DHARMADHIKARI &
ig KUM. INDIRA JAIN, JJ.
JULY 20, 2016.
ORAL JUDGMENT : (PER B.P. DHARMADHIKARI, J.)
The petitioners before this Court are real brothers,
who claim to belong to Halbi, Scheduled Tribe. Their caste
claim has been invalidated by Respondent No. 2 - Committee
on 28.06.2004 and 30.06.2004 respectively. This Court has
admitted the matters for final hearing but no interim relief has
been given.
2. Shri Kaslikar, learned counsel for the petitioners
submits that Pre-Constitution documents, which recorded the
caste as Halbi, have not been doubted during Vigilance inquiry
and have been discarded only because of possibility that the
caste Halbi mentioned therein may be sub-caste of caste Koshti
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and, therefore, not a Scheduled Tribe. He further states that a
proper family tree was filed before Respondent No. 2 -
Committee but without verifying the documents of those
relatives, the vigilance squad has looked into the documents of
in-laws of the sisters of the petitioners and hence those
documents are not relevant.
3.
During hearing, he submits that he has filed
Vakalatnama for the petitioners recently but then the
petitioners did not inform him that any family member has
been given validity or then any other caste claim in the family
has been invalidated. According to him, as without appropriate
opportunity and verification the caste claim is invalidated, the
matter must be sent back.
4. Shri Patil, learned AGP for the respondents is
relying upon the impugned orders. According to him, the
burden was upon the petitioners to demonstrate that they
belong to Halbi, Scheduled Tribe. Except for producing the
documents in which caste has been recorded as Halbi, the
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petitioners did not produce any material. The vigilance
authorities found that the female members in the family have
been married within the caste itself and as such, the documents
becoming available on the side of their husband have been
used. Those documents reveal the caste as Koshti.
5. The Scrutiny Committee has also applied affinity
test and found that the petitioners failed to meet it. He,
therefore, prays for dismissal of writ petitions. He also adds
that if the caste claim of any other relative has been invalidated
because of the impugned orders, any intervention by this Court
in present matters would automatically result in quashing that
invalidation. He points out that the petitioner - Ruchir in Writ
Petition No. 5743 of 2004 was 20 years old while the petitioner
- Animesh in Writ Petition No. 1548 of 2005 was about 28
years old when the respective petitions were filed. He contends
that in this situation, it cannot be accepted that no other
member in the family has attempted to obtain either caste
certificate or validity.
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6. We find substance in the contention of the learned
AGP that other members in the family must have attempted to
obtain caste validity. The details of those proceedings are not
on record. However, in present matters, the petitioners have
supplied old documents and those documents mention caste as
Halbi on 29.10.1922 and 16.09.1933. There are other
documents also but we do not find it necessary to refer to those
documents. The documents obviously have been verified by the
Vigilance squad and are not found to be interpolated. In this
situation, if the documents are found to be genuine, only
because of possibility that the caste 'Halbi' recorded therein may
be a sub-caste of caste 'Koshti' and, therefore, may not qualify
as Scheduled Tribe, the documents could not have been
discarded. The documents of in-laws of the sisters of the
petitioners appear to be recent in origin. The petitioners have
also supplied the documents of recent origin where caste has
been mentioned as Halbi only.
7. The affinity test no doubt assumes importance but
when the documents are clinching, not satisfying affinity test,
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may not result in invalidation. Here, we find that the old
records produced by the petitioners have not been properly
appreciated.
8. Taking overall view of the matter, we are inclined
to grant an opportunity of hearing to the petitioners to
substantiate their caste claim. Accordingly, only for that
purpose, we quash and set aside the impugned orders
mentioned supra. However, this will not automatically result in
vitiating any subsequent invalidation of caste claim or invalidity
of the family members. The said orders of invalidation shall be
looked into and examined independently on its own merits. The
petitioners shall place on record the family tree with necessary
affidavit and also disclose therein validities received or then
invalidities of caste claims of their family members. After
receipt of such an affidavit, Respondent No. 2 - Committee
shall re-examine the caste claim in accordance with the
Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-notified
Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward
Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance
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& Verification of) Caste Certificates Act, 2000 (Maharashtra
Act No. 23 of 2001), at the earliest.
9. We direct the petitioners to appear before the
Scrutiny Committee on 19.09.2016 and to abide by its further
instructions in the matter.
10.
Writ Petitions are disposed of accordingly. Rule is
made absolute in above terms. However, in the facts and
circumstances of the case, there shall be no order as to costs.
JUDGE JUDGE
******
*GS.
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C E R T I F I C A T E
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