Bombay High Court
Smt. Sunanda Arun Mahale vs Schedule Tribe Scrutiny ... on 10 June, 2016
Bench: Anoop V. Mohta
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
WRIT PETITION NO. 9293 OF 2013
Smt. Sunanda Arun Mahale,
Age Major, Occu. Service,
R/at- D/13, 201, Yogi Dham,
Kalyan (West), District Thane-421 301 ....Petitioner.
Vs.
1
Schedule Tribe Scrutiny Committee,
Nashik, Gadkari Chowk, C.V.S. Road,
District Nashik,
(Through its Member Secretary)
2 Mumbai Municipal Corporation,
Having office at Mahapalika Bhawan,
Fort, Mumbai. ....Respondents.
Mr. Vaibhav A. Sugdare for the Petitioner.
Mr. V.N. Sagare, AGP for the Respondent-State.
CORAM : ANOOP V. MOHTA AND
G.S. KULKARNI, JJ.
DATE : 10 JUNE 2016.
ORAL JUDGMENT (PER ANOOP V. MOHTA, J.):-
Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by
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consent of the parties.
2 The Petitioner has challenged impugned order dated 25
January 2012 passed by Respondent No.1-Schedule Tribe Scrutiny
Committee, Nashik whereby, the Petitioner's caste claim was rejected
solely on the ground that the caste certificate issued by the Sub-
Divisional Magistrate, Nasik City, Dist. Nashik is invalid as the
Applicant is ordinary resident of village Betawad Tal. Sindkheda Dist.
Dhule.
3 The submission is made by the learned counsel appearing
for the Petitioner that the Petitioner's forefathers were definitely, at the
relevant time, resident of village Betawad Tal. Sindkheda Dist. Dhule.
However, the whole family migrated to Nashik in the year 1965 and
therefore, being resident of Nashik, he applied for the Caste Certificate
in question, at Nashik. The Division Bench of this Court (Coram:-
A.M. Khanwilkar and S.S. Shinde, JJ) in Pratibha W/o Rajendra
Thakur @ Pratibha D/o. Bapurao Thakur Vs. Scheduled Tribe
Certificate Scrutiny Committee & Ors. 1 , observing Rule 5(2) of
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Maharashtra Schedule Tribes (Regulation of Issuance and Verification
of) Certificate Rules, 2003 (for short, "the Schedule Tribe Rules")
directed the Scrutiny Committee to decide the original caste
certificate, in accordance with law. In another Judgment, Niraj
Kamlakar More Vs. Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny
Committee, Aurangabad 2 , the Division Bench of this Court,
considering the same Rule, in para 12 observed as under:-
"12. Thus, a caste certificate issued by the competent
authority cannot be said to be invalid or nullity only
on the ground that the competent authority did not
have territorial jurisdiction. Thus, it follows that in
the facts of these cases, the caste certificates issued
by the competent authority cannot be said to be
invalid. The Scrutinee Committee cannot refuse to
exercise its power on the ground that the caste
certificate produced before it for validation was
issued by the competent authority having no
territorial jurisdiction to issue the same. When a
caste certificate issued by the competent authority is
not invalid within meaning of sub-section (2) of
Section 4 of the said Act, the Scrutiny Committee
cannot refuse to exercise its jurisdiction of
adjudication or verification of caste claim. In cases
in hand, the only finding of the Scrutinee
Committee is that the competent authority which
issued caste certificate had no territorial jurisdiction
to issue the certificate. Therefore, we hold that the
caste certificates are not invalid and the Caste
Scrutiny Committee was duty bound to make
adjudication on the respective caste claims of the
petitioners".
2 2012(5) Mh. L. J. 367
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4 Even otherwise, considering the scheme and purpose of
the Act and the Rules so referred above and as there is no contra
and/or different provisions read and referred and/or pointed out, we
are inclined to observe that for applying the caste certificate and/or
validation of the same, the resident of a person/party/claimant is a
requisite condition, specifically when migrated from one district to
another, in and within the same State.
In the present case, in view of above admitted position, we
see there is no reason that the Competent Authority should not
consider the case of the Petitioner in accordance with law on its own
merits and decide the validity of the caste certificate.
6 Resultantly, we pass the following order:-
ORDER
a) Impugned order dated 25 January 2012, is quashed
and set aside.
b) The Application of the Petitioner-Claimant, is
restored to the file of the Scheduled Tribe
Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nashik Division,
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Nashik, to decide the original case in accordance
with law, at the earliest.
c) Rule made absolute accordingly.
d) There shall be no order as to costs.
(G.S. KULKARNI, J.) (ANOOP V. MOHTA, J.)
