Bombay High Court
Sham Sheshrao Garud vs Scheduled Tribe Certificate ... on 16 October, 2023
Bench: Mangesh S. Patil, Shailesh P. Brahme
2023:BHC-AUG:22412-DB
1 29.WP-5760-2021.doc
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD
Writ Petition No. 5760 of 2021
Sham Sheshrao Garud
Age : 33 years, Occu.: Education,
R/o Daithana, Tq. & Dist. Parbhani ...Petitioner
Versus
1. The Scheduled Tribe Certificate
Scrutiny Committee, Dist. Aurangabad
through its Member Secretary.
3. Jotiba Shikshan Sanstha's
N.T.S. College of Education
Shivram Nagar, Parbhani, Dist. Parbhani
Through its Principal. ...Respondents
___
Mr. Sagar S. Phatale, Advocate for the Petitioner.
Mr. S.B. Yawalkar, Addl.GP for Respondent No.1/State.
Mr. Sachin S. Deshmukh, Advocate for Respondent No.2.
___
CORAM : MANGESH S. PATIL &
SHAILESH P. BRAHME, JJ.
DATE : 16 OCTOBER 2023.
FINAL ORDER [SHAILESH P. BRAHME, J.] :
. Heard both the sides finally at the admission stage.
2. The petitioner is challenging the judgment and order dated
15.01.2021 passed by the respondent no.1/Scrutiny Committee,
invalidating his tribe certificate of 'Thakur' scheduled tribe and
confiscating it. The petitioner seeks to rely upon number of validity
certificates in his family. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits
that few of the validity certificates are issued in pursuance of the
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order passed by the High Court. The impugned judgment and order
is discriminatory. He has placed on record the order passed by the
High Court in the matter of Kunal and Shruti.
3. Per contra, learned AGP supports impugned judgment and
order. According to him, the Scrutiny Committee has rightly
discarded the claim of the petitioner in view of the manipulation in
the school record of Tulsidas, Vilas, Manoj, Baliram and Vasant. He
further submits that though the record of few relatives indicates
caste as Thakur, the petitioner failed to prove that it was Thakur
scheduled tribe. He supports the finding recorded on area restriction
and affinity test. He would urge to dismiss the petition.
4. Our attention is invited to genealogy which is at page no.39.
We find that there are number of validity holders in the family of the
petitioner. All the validity holders are paternal side relatives. This
position has not been disputed by the learned AGP. Out of them,
Kunal was issued with validity certificate by the intervention of the
High Court. Similarly Nivrutti was issued with validity certificate by
the judgment which is at page no.27. Shruti was also issued with
tribe certificate in pursuance of the judgment and order which is at
page no.69.
5. After considering selfsame record, the validity certificates are
issued in pursuance of the order passed by the High Court. There
are other validity holders in the family of the petitioner. Therefore, it
is not open for the Scrutiny Committee to deprive the petitioner from
the same social status. We hold that the impugned judgment and
order is discriminatory and perverse. It is open for the Scrutiny
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Committee to conduct re-verification and to find out any element of
fraud. Unless the validity certificates are revoked, the petitioner
cannot be denied validity certificate. We have no hesitation to hold
that the petitioner has made out a case for validity certificate to be
issued on certain conditions.
6. We, therefore, pass the following order.
ORDER
(i) The writ petition is partly allowed.
(ii) The judgment and order dated 15.01.2021 is quashed and set
aside.
(iii) The Committee shall immediately issue tribe validity certificate
of 'Thakur' scheduled tribe to the petitioner which shall be subject to
the outcome of re-verification intended by the Committee.
(iv) The petitioner shall not be entitled to claim equities.
[SHAILESH P. BRAHME, J.] [MANGESH S. PATIL, J.]
NAJEEB/..
