Kishore S/O Gajanan Bhisikar vs State Of Maha. Through Secretary, ...
2017 Latest Caselaw 2164 Bom

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          IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
                    NAGPUR BENCH : NAGPUR
                        Writ Petition No. 1578 of 2017


 Kishore son of Gajanan Bhisikar,
 aged about 59 years,
 occupation - Retired employee of
 MSEB, resident of 1404,
 New Nandanwan Layout,
 Nagpur.                                                    .....     Petitioner.


                                   Versus


 1.      State of Maharashtra,
         through its Secretary,
         Ministry of Tribal Welfare
         & Social Justice,
         Mantralaya,
         Mumbai-400 032.

 2.      Sub-Divisional Officer,
         Umarkhed,
         Distt. Yavatmal.                            ....         Respondents.


                                 *****
 Mr. N. C. Phadnis, Adv., for the petitioner.

 Mr. Gangane, Asstt. Govt. Pleader for respondents.

                                       *****



                               CORAM    :      B. R. GAVAI AND
                                               A. S. CHANDURKAR, JJ.

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Date : 03rd May, 2017

ORAL JUDGMENT [Per B.R. Gavai, J.]:

01. Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by

consent.

02. This is a classic example of non-application of mind by the

respondent no.2. The petitioner has approached this Court being

aggrieved by the rejection of his application for grant of Caste

Certificate to him of belonging to "Halbi" - Scheduled Tribe.

03. The application of the petitioner is rejected on the ground

that the petitioner has failed to satisfy certain criteria as laid down in

the report of the Farera Committee.

04. However, it is to be noted that the same authority has

granted Caste Certificates of belonging to "Halbi" - Scheduled Tribe in

favour of petitioner's two sons, namely [1] Akshay and [2] Anshul, as

well as daughter - Ku. Sweety. As such, on account of non-application

of mind by the respondent no.2 - authority, an anomalous situation has

arisen that the three children of the petitioner are having Caste

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Certificates of belonging to Scheduled Tribe. As against this,

according to respondent no.2, the petitioner does not belong to

Scheduled Tribe.

05. Apart from that, as has been held by this Court in a catena

of judgments that a detailed enquiry at the stage of grant of Caste

Certificate is not required, what is required is a preliminary enquiry.

Detailed enquiry is contemplated at the stage of scrutiny of Caste

Certificate by the Caste Scrutiny Committee.

06. In that view of the matter, we find that when petitioner's

two sons and a daughter have been granted Caste Certificates, the

respondent no.2 has erred in denying the same to the petitioner.

07. Rule is, therefore, made absolute in terms of Prayer Clause

[A1].

           Judge                                                  Judge
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