Ku. Shravani D/O Ganesh Wankhede vs State Of Maharashtra, Thr. ...
2022 Latest Caselaw 9362 Bom

                          1

                                           16-9-2022-wp-2685-2022.odt

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

               Writ Petition No.2685 of 2022

Ku. Shravani d/o Ganesh Wankhede,
Aged 18 years,
Occupation - Student,
R/o Sunderkhed,
Behind Kothari Honda Showroom,
Shiv Chatrapati Nagar,
Khamgaon Road,
Buldhana 443302.                                         ... Petitioner

  Versus

1. State of Maharashtra,
   through its Secretary,
   Department of Social Justice
   and Empowerment,
   Mantralaya,
   Mumbai.

2. The Chairman,
   Scheduled Tribe Certificate
   Scrutiny Committee,
   Amravati Division,
   Amravati.

3. The Headmaster,
   Janta High School and Junior College,
   Neri, Tah. Jammer,
   District Jalgaon.                                     ... Respondents


Shri R.S. Parsodkar, Advocate for Petitioner.
Smt.     K.S.   Joshi,   Additional      Government        Pleader      for
Respondent Nos.1 and 2.
Shri Abhinav Pannase, Advocate for Respondent No.3.


        CORAM : SUNIL B. SHUKRE & G.A. SANAP, JJ.

DATE : 16th SEPTEMBER, 2022

16-9-2022-wp-2685-2022.odt

ORAL JUDGMENT (PER SUNIL B. SHUKRE, J.) :

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by

consent of the learned counsel appearing for the parties.

2. It is seen that there are two validity certificates issued by the

Scrutiny Committee at Aurangabad to the paternal relatives of the

petitioner; one in favour of Gajanan Kishanrao Wankhede, the paternal

uncle; and the other in favour of Sunita Kishanrao Wankhede, the

paternal aunt. These validity certificates have been rejected by the

respondent No.2- Scrutiny Committee at Amravati on the ground that

they were issued by the Scrutiny Committee at Aurangabad, which did

not have any jurisdiction over the native place of these two paternal

relatives. The ground of rejection putforth in the impugned order is

illegal, as there is no law which restricts the validity certificate only to

the area over which the Scrutiny Committee has it's jurisdiction. Once

the validity certificate is granted to a claimant, it becomes a conclusive

proof of the social status acquired by that person for all purposes and

in any territory where such proof is required to be submitted.

Therefore, such validity certificates can also be used as having

sufficient evidentiary value in the caste or tribe claim raised by the

other paternal relatives of a person in whose favour those certificates

are issued. We, therefore, find that the reasoning adopted by the

Scrutiny Committee is wrong and we are also of the view that only on

16-9-2022-wp-2685-2022.odt

the basis of the validity certificates issued in favour of the paternal

relatives of the petitioner, the petitioner is also entitled to have his

tribe certificate validated by the Scrutiny Committee, especially when

it has not been shown that these validity certificates have been

revisited on the ground that they were obtained by fraud or by making

misrepresentation or by suppressing material facts having a bearing on

the claim made by these paternal relatives of the petitioner.

3. The petition is, therefore, allowed in terms of

prayer clause (1). The Scrutiny Committee, Amravati, is directed to

issue a validity certificate to the petitioner as belonging to 'Thakur',

Scheduled Tribe within a period of three weeks from the date of this

order.

4. Rule is made absolute in above terms. No costs.

                                    (G.A. SANAP, J.)                          (SUNIL B. SHUKRE, J.)
          Lanjewar




Digitally Signed By :P D
LANJEWAR
Signing Date:16.09.2022
18:52