Bombay High Court
Pranav Vilas Bodle vs The State Of Maharashtra Thr Its ... on 16 October, 2023
Bench: Mangesh S. Patil, Shailesh P. Brahme
2023:BHC-AUG:22368-DB
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD
Writ Petition No. 2229 of 2021
Pranav s/o Vilas Bodle
Age : 18 years, Occu.: Student,
R/o Plot No.2, Swaraj Park, Trimbak
Nagar, Devlai Road, Aurangabad,
Tq. and Dist. Aurangabad. ...Petitioner
Versus
1. The State of Maharashtra,
Through its Secretary,
Tribal Development Department,
Mantralaya, Mumbai.
2. The Commissioner & Competent Authority,
Government of Maharashtra,
State Common Entrance Test Cell,
8th Floor, New Exclesior Building,
A.K. Nayak Marg, Fort,
Mumbai.
3. Deputy Director (Research)
and Member Secretary,
Scheduled Tribe Certifcate
Verifcation Committee,
Near Saint Lawrence High School,
Dist. Aurangabad. ...Respondents
___
Mr. Chandrakant R. Thorat, Advocate for the Petitioner.
Mr. S.G. Sangale, AGP for Respondents/State.
___
CORAM : MANGESH S. PATIL &
SHAILESH P. BRAHME, JJ.
DATE : 16 OCTOBER 2023.
FINAL ORDER [SHAILESH P. BRAHME, J.] :
. Heard both the sides fnally at the admission stage.
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2. Being aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 15.01.2021
invalidating the tribe certifcate of Mannervarlu scheduled tribe and
confscating it, the petitioner has approached High Court. The petitioner
seeks to rely upon number of validity certifcates issued to his father Vilas,
real uncle Anil and cousin Prachi. Besides that cousin uncles Vinod, Vikas
and Aniket were also issued with validity certifcates after following due
procedure of law. He would rely upon the old record of 1961, 1975 and
1977 indicating caste as Mannervarlu.
3. Learned AGP supports impugned judgment and order. He would
submit that the old record is inconsistent and incompatible to the claim of
the petitioner. Few entries indicate Kolam, Munulwar and Mannerlu. He
would also point out the manipulation in the record of Anil. He would
submit that the school record of Sukhdev, Anil and Meera indicates caste as
Maratha. It is further submitted that the validity certifcates are not
reliable being procured by suppression of material facts.
4. We have considered the submissions of both the sides. The
genealogy which is shown to us at page no.55 is not disputed. Father and
real uncle of the petitioner are validity holders. Besides that the impugned
judgment in its paragraph no.7 discloses the list of validity holders in the
family of the petitioner which is about 20 persons. Only because the
Committee has proposed re-verifcation of the validity certifcates issued
earlier cannot be said to be an impediment to issue validity certifcate to
the petitioner. In absence of any procedural faws or arbitrariness or
element of any fraud, the petitioner cannot be deprived of same social
status. We fnd that the Committee has committed patent illegality in
rejecting the caste claim.
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5. Though the learned AGP has pointed out the record indicating
contrary entries, we are unable to embark an enquiry over the impugned
judgment passed by the Committee. It is open for the Committee to
undertake the exercise to fnd out element of fraud. In view of the
intention of the Committee to conduct re-verifcation, we hold that the
petitioner is entitled to validity certifcate subject to outcome of the re-
verifcation.
6. We hold that the impugned judgment and order is unsustainable.
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 certifcate of
'Mannervarlu' scheduled tribe, to the petitioner which shall be subject to
the outcome of proposed re-verifcation undertaken by the Committee.
(iv) The petitioner shall not be entitled to claim equities.
[ SHAILESH P. BRAHME, J. ] [ MANGESH S. PATIL, J. ]
NAJEEB/..
