Chinmay Rajendra Kadam vs The S.T. Caste Certificate ...
2022 Latest Caselaw 11686 Bom

                                                    1                      wp6267.22.odt


         IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
                   NAGPUR BENCH AT NAGPUR

                        WRIT PETITION NO.6267/2022

     Chinmay Rajendra Kadam,
     aged 19 years, Occ. Student,
     r/o Lahariya Nagar, Kaulkhed,
     Dist. Akola.                                            .....PETITIONER
                       ...V E R S U S...

     The Scheduled Tribes Caste Certificate
     Scrutiny Committee, through its
     Member Secretary, Chaprasipura,
     Amravati                               ...RESPONDENT

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Mr. R. S. Parsodkar, Advocate for petitioner.
Mrs. K. S. Joshi, Addl.G.P. for respondent.
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CORAM:- SUNIL B. SHUKRE & ANIL L. PANSARE, JJ.

DATED :- 16.11.2022

ORAL JUDGMENT (Per: Sunil B. Shukre, J.)

Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Heard finally

by consent of learned counsel for the parties.

2. We find that the Scrutiny Committee has, without

issuing any show cause notice and without examining the relevant

jurisdictional facts, passed the sweeping remarks that Mr. Shrikant

Kadam, paternal cousin of the petitioner, obtained tribe validity

certificate from Pune Scrutiny Committee, by deception and fraud 2 wp6267.22.odt

and, thereafter, it went on to discard the validity granted to Mr.

Shrikant Kadam.

3. In our considered view, it is not open to the Scrutiny

Committee to ignore or reject the good evidence in the nature of

validity certificate issued to a paternal relative of the claimant, only on

the ground that the validity was issued to him by another Scrutiny

Committee, unless an effort is made for examining all the relevant

facts, including the jurisdictional facts and proper conclusion is made

regarding the validity certificate being a nullity or is the result of fraud

played upon the Scrutiny Committee, issuing the validity certificate.

No such findings have been record by the Scrutiny Committee.

Therefore, we find that the rejection of the validity granted to Mr.

Shrikant Kadam by the Scrutiny Committee, is contrary to the well

settled principles of law. Useful reference in this regard, may be made

to the view taken by this Court in several cases such as, Apoorva d/o

Vinay Nichale Vs. Divisional Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee

No.1 & Others.;1, Aryan Sanjay Kakade Vs. The Scheduled Tribe Caste

Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati & Others.2 and Ku.Shravani

d/o Ganesh Wankhede Vs. State of Maharashtra thr. its Secretary &

Others.3

1 2010 (6) Mh.L.J.401.

3 wp6267.22.odt

4. We are of the view that as the validity granted to Mr.

Shrikant Kadam is still operative, it would constitute a reasonable

evidence of the social status claimed by the petitioner and

therefore, merely on the basis of this validity certificate the tribe

claim of the petitioner should have been validated by the Scrutiny

Committee. Of course, there is also an invalidation of the same

social status as claimed by the petitioner, in the family of the

petitioner. Ms Hemlata, paternal aunt of the petitioner, claimed

herself to be belonging to Thakur-Scheduled Tribe. But, her such

claim was rejected by the same Committee at Amravati. When the

matter came up before this Court, the view expressed by the

Scrutiny Committee, Amravati was confirmed by this Court and

thus, invalidation of the caste claim of Ms Hemlata got

confirmation at the hands of the High Court. The matter, however,

did not stop there. Now, this very case is before the Supreme

Court of India, which is, Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (C)

No.26231/2018, in which, by order passed on 08.10.2018, there is

a stay to the invalidation of the tribe certificate of Ms Hemlata.

That means, it has remained undetermined as yet as to what

exactly is the tribe status of Ms Hemlata. It would also mean that

for the present, we have to go by what is at operation, which is the

validity granted to Mr. Shrikant Kadam.

4 wp6267.22.odt

5. In this view of the matter, we are inclined to allow this

petition, subject to some conditions.

The writ petition is allowed. The impugned order

dated 02.09.2022 passed by the respondent no.1 is hereby

quashed and set aside. The respondent no.1-Committee is directed

to issue validity certificate to the petitioner as he belonging to

Thakur-Scheduled Tribe, subject to the final decision of the

Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No.26231/2018, pending

before the Supreme Court, within a period of one week from the

date of receipt of this order.

Rule is made absolute in the above terms. No order as

to costs.

(Anil L. Pansare, J.) (Sunil B. Shukre, J.)

kahale

Digitally signed byYOGESH ARVIND KAHALE Signing Date:17.11.2022 16:50