Bombay High Court
Vaishnavi D/O Gajanan Mungalkar And ... vs Scheduled Tribe Caste Scrutiny ... on 16 October, 2024
Author: Avinash G. Gharote
Bench: Avinash G. Gharote, M.S. Jawalkar
2024:BHC-NAG:11569-DB
5-wp 7739-2023-j.odt 1/5
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR
WRIT PETITION NO. 7739 OF 2023
1. Vaishnavi D/o. Gajanan Mungalkar,
Aged 22 years, Occu. Student,
2. Vedant Gajanan Mungalkar,
Aged 18 years, Occu. Student,
Both R/o. Mauli Niwas, Near Datta
Mandir, Maganpura, Nanded, Tq.
and District - Nanded. ....PETITIONER
....VERSUS....
Scheduled Tribe Caste Scrutiny
Committee, Yavatmal, Distt.
Yavatmal, through its Research
Officer and Member Secretary. ....RESPONDENTS
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Shri T.U.Tathod, Advocate for petitioners.
Ms. S.S.Jachak, Addl. G.P. for respondent/State.
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CORAM : AVINASH G. GHAROTE AND
SMT. M.S. JAWALKAR, JJ.
DATE : 16/10/2024
ORAL JUDGMENT (PER: AVINASH G. GHAROTE, J.)
Heard Mr. Tathod, learned counsel for the
petitioners and Ms. Jachak, learned Addl. G.P. for the
respondent/State.
2. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith.
3. The petition questions the decision dated
26/07/2023 (Pg.27) of the Scheduled Tribe Scrutiny
Committee, Yavatmal (for short, 'the Scrutiny Committee')
whereby the claim of the petitioners of belonging to 'Raj'
which is Scheduled Tribe (S.T.) at entry no. 18 in the
presidential order has been rejected on the ground that,
certain entries, which have been found by the Vigilance in
respect of the persons, who are claimed to be related to the
petitioners are of 'Beldar' which is NT-B.
4. The tree which has been given by the petitioners
(Pg.113) is not disputed. The tree which is found by the
Vigilance (Pg.142) after Rambhau, great grandfather, supports
the tree submitted by the petitioners (Pg.113). Three persons
in the tree, namely Shantanu, Darshan and Vedant have been
granted validity. Shantanu S/o. Prabhakar Mungalkar, the
son of the uncle of the petitioners and Darshan S/o. Prakash
Mungalkar, the son of the other uncle of the petitioners have
been granted validity, in view of the judgment of this Court
dated 20/12/2021 in Writ Petition No. 5380/2021 (Pg.121).
On that basis, Vedant S/o. Prabhakar Mungalkar has also
been granted validity (Pg.131).
5. The learned Addl. G. P. has produced the record
before us, on the basis of which, she makes a statement, that
the relationship between the petitioners and Shantanu,
Darshan and Vedant is not disputed. In that view of the
matter, all that the Scrutiny Committee was required to do
was to grant validity to the petitioners since the relationship
was not disputed. However, ignoring the same, the Scrutiny
Committee has indulged into an exercise of verification,
which is contrary to the settled position of law in that regard,
that too without any evidence on record to indicate, that the
persons named in the Chart in para 9 (Pg.32) were related to
the petitioners. In fact, a perusal of the tree found by the
Vigilance itself indicates the absence of any relationship
between those persons whose names figure in the Chart in
para 9 of the impugned decision (Pg.32) and the petitioners,
on account of which, the Committee could not have relied
upon those entries. That apart, what is also material to note is,
that while deciding the claim of the Shantanu S/o. Prabhakar
Mungalkar and another in Writ Petition No. 5380/2021, the
learned Division Bench of this Court in para 6 (Pg.124) has
relied upon pre-independence documents, the oldest of which
were of the years 1911-12, 1936, 1940, 1942 and 1945, which
showed an entry of 'Raj'. The impugned decision does not
indicate, that these entries have been taken into consideration
by the Scrutiny Committee while denying the claim of the
petitioners.
6. In view of the above position, we do not see any
reason to sustain the impugned decisions in Case Nos. (1)
11 / 502 / Edu / 012023 / 4411 and (2) 11 / 502 / Edu /
012023 / 4412 dated 26/07/2023 (Pg.27). The same is hereby
quashed and set aside and the Scrutiny Committee is hereby
directed to issue the Tribe Validity Certificate to the
petitioners of belonging to 'Raj' Scheduled Tribe. The same
shall be done within a period of one week from today. Till
that time, the petitioners can use this judgment in place of the
validity certificates for the purpose of admission to M.B.A.
and other course.
7. An authenticated copy of this order be given to the
learned counsel for petitioners.
8. Rule is made absolute in the above terms. No
order as to costs.
(Judge) (Judge)
B.T.Khapekar
Signed by: Mr. B.T. Khapekar
Designation: PA To Honourable Judge
Date: 16/10/2024 14:05:35
