Bombay High Court
Atish Vikas Ghate vs The State Of Maharashtra Through Its ... on 16 January, 2024
Author: Vibha Kankanwadi
Bench: Vibha Kankanwadi
2024:BHC-AUG:1459-DB
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD
WRIT PETITION NO. 2512 OF 2023
Atish s/o. Vikas Ghate,
Age 26 years, Occ. Education,
R/o At post Aurad, Tq. Omerga,
Dist. Osmanabad, 413 606 .. Petitioner
Versus
1. The State of Maharashtra
through its Secretary,
Social Justice Department,
Mantralaya, Mumbai 400 032.
2. The Joint Commissioner & Vice Chairman,
Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee
Aurangabad Division, Aurangabad 431 003.
3. The Deputy Collector (Land Acquisition)
Osmanabad, Tq. & Dist. Osmanabad 413 606
4. The Tehsildar Executive Magistrate,
Omerga, Tq. Omerga, Dist. Osmanabad 413 606.
5. Shree Shikshan Pratishthan Sanchalit
Principal, A.D. Joshi Junior College,
Jule-Soapur, Tq. And dist. Solapur 413 004.
.. Respondents.
Mr. O.D. Mane, Advocate for petitioner
Mr. S.K. Shirse, AGP for respondent Nos. 1 to 4
Mr. B.B. Kulkarni, Advocate for respondent No.5
CORAM : SMT. VIBHA KANKANWADI
& S.G. CHAPALGAONKAR, JJ.
DATE : 16th JANUARY, 2024.
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Judgment (per S. G. Chapalgaonkar, J.) :-
1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by
consent of learned counsel appearing for the parties.
2. The petitioner approaches this court under Article 226 of the
Constitution of India impugning the order dated 21.12.2022 passed by
the Scheduled Tribes Certificate Verification Committee, Aurangabad
(respondent No.2) thereby invalidating the tribe claim of the petitioner
for "Koli Mahadev" Scheduled Tribe.
3. Mr. O.D. Mane, learned counsel for the petitioner would
submit that the petitioner was pursuing his education, he was granted
caste certificate by the competent authority for "Koli Mahadev (Sr.
No.29) Schedule Tribe". The petitioner's caste certificate was referred
for verification to the committee. The committee directed Vigilance Cell
Inquiry. However, the Vigilance Officer never approached the petitioner
or his father and submitted misleading report. The petitioner was served
with the show cause notice dated 5.5.2020 aloangwith Vigilance Report
which has been duly replied by the petitioner explaining the adverse
remarks. The petitioner had submitted the genealogy in form of affidavit
containing requisite details of the blood relations. The petitioner has
placed on record the validities granted in favour of two blood relatives,
namely, Vyankat Jagannath Ghate and Nilkanth Jagannath Ghate, who
are cousins of petitioner's father. The Committee without considering the
aforesaid evidence, invalidated the caste claim of the petitioner for
erroneous reasons.
4. Mr. S.K. Shirse, learned AGP appearing for respondent Nos. 1
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to 4 vehemently opposes the writ petition and submits that the validities
relied upon by the petitioner were obtained by suppression of contra
entries. Further, the then Committee has not followed the requisite
procedure hence the validities relied by the petitioner do not constitute
evidence in support of petitioner's caste claim.
5. We have given anxious consideration to the submissions
advanced by learned advocates for the respective parties. We have
perused the original record received from the Committee. Pertinently,
the petitioner has relied upon the affidavit in form F containing
genealogy submitted by the petitioner's father. As per the genealogy, the
validity holders Vyankat Ghate and Nilkant Ghate fall in blood relations
of the petitioner. The Committee observed that those validities were
obtained by suppression of contra entries for the period from 1954 to
1976 in respect of blood relations. Further favourable entries were found
to be manipulated. It is further observed that the validity certificate of
Vikram Shivaji Ghate has been issued during the regime of Mr. V.S. Patil,
Assistant Commissioner, in whose regime large scale irregularities were
noticed in the committee's working. Consequently, the Government had
issued directions to review such certificates.
6. Apparently, the Committee has not recorded a specific
finding that the validity certificates relied upon by the petitioners were
obtained by fraud or misrepresentation. Merely because some contra
entries were not brought to the notice of the Committee, the validity
issued earlier cannot be termed as "fraudulent" unless such suppression
is intentional. During the course of arguments, learned AGP submits that
Jagannath Ghate, who is father of validity holders Vyankat and Nilakanth
denied to have relationship with petitioners as shown in genealogy.
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However, we find that the impugned order or the vigilance Report is
silent on this aspect.
7. In the light of the aforesaid observations, we deem it
appropriate to set aside the impugned order and remand the matter back
to the Committee for fresh consideration for confirming the correctness
of the genealogy relied by committee so also validities relied upon by the
petitioner. Resultantly, we pass the following order :-
ORDER
[a] The writ petition is partly allowed;
[b] The impugned order dated 2/12/2022 passed by the Committee is
quashed and set aside;
[c] The matter is remitted back to the respondent No.2 Committee for
fresh decision after affording an opportunity to petitioner to
furnish explanation regarding adverse material surfaced during
the Vigilance Inquiry including correctness of genealogy;
[d] The committee shall decide matter as expeditiously as possible
and in any case within period of one year from date of this order.
[e] Rule made absolute in above terms with no orders as to costs.
[S.G. CHAPALGAONKAR,J] [SMT. VIBHA KANKANWADI, J]
grt/-
