Bombay High Court
Vedant Ramdas Suryawad And Another vs The State Of Maharashtra Through Its ... on 8 September, 2025
Author: R. G. Avachat
Bench: R. G. Avachat
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD
WRIT PETITION NO. 10918 OF 2025
1. VEDANT RAMDAS SURYAWAD
2. PRATHAMESH BALAJI SURYAWAD
VERSUS
THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA THROUGH ITS SECRETARY
AND ANOTHER
...
Advocate for the Petitioners : Mr. Bolkar Yogesh B.
AGP for Respondents : Mr. P.K. Lakhotiya
...
CORAM : R. G. AVACHAT AND
ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, JJ.
DATE : 08.09.2025
PER COURT :
. The petitioners claim to have belonged to "Mannervarlu"
scheduled tribe. Their tribe certificates were subjected to verification.
Respondent no. 2 - Scrutiny Committee vide order dated 04.09.2025,
refused to grant the validity certificates. The petitioners are, therefore,
before us.
2. Learned Advocate for the petitioners would submit that the
blood relations of the petitioners have been granted validity certificates
vide order passed by this Court in Writ Petition No. 9060/2012,
conditionally. According to him, the entire record that was before the
Scrutiny committee was very much there before this Court, which
decided the said Writ Petition. As such, the case of the petitioners is
similar to that of those petitioners who have been granted the validity
certificates. He, therefore, urged for grant of validity certificates on the
ground of parity.
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3. Learned AGP would on the other hand submit that the
Scrutiny Committee which issued validity certificate was comprised of
Late Shri V.S. Patil. This Court in number of Writ Petitions has
observed that the Committee headed by Late Shri V.S. Patil, had
indulged in issuing forged and fabricated validity certificates. The
observations made by this Court would come in the way of the
petitioners herein to secure validity certificates. He would further
submit that the petitioners herein and their relations, who relies on the
validity certificates, had in fact suppressed from the Committee the fact
that their relations namely Govind Sambhaji Surewad and Kiran
Dhondiba Surewad, have not been granted validity certificates. The
decisions therein were passed way back in the year 1996 and 2002,
respectively. Respondent no. 2 - Scrutiny Committee has, therefore,
rightly turned down the claim of the petitioners and more so, when the
school record consistently indicates the petitioners and their forefathers
to have belonged to caste ' Mannurvar' which comes in the category of
Other Backward Class (OBC). He, therefore, urged for dismissal of
Writ Petition.
4. We have considered the submissions advanced. Perused
the documents relied on. It is true in some of the proceedings granting
validity certificates, Late Shri V.S. Patil, was heading the said
Committee. It is also not in dispute that this Court had an occasion to
consider the certificate granted by the Committee headed by Late Shri
V.S. Patil. The Scrutiny Committee in this case has reproduced the
observations made by this Court in one of such Writ Petitions. Those
observations read as follows :
"13. The learned AGP further submits that the
Committee headed by the Chairperson Shri V.S. Patil (who
is no more), had gained notoriety by keeping draft orders
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in a cyclostyled manner, ready for pronouncement, in
hundreds of cases. Such cyclostyled draft orders with
blank spaces were used by the said Committee while
granting validity certificates to hundreds of candidates.
The blank spaces were filled in by hand writings and
sometimes, as like in the case of the Petitioner's father,
several blank spaces were kept blank and the orders were
pronounced. There was no change in the reasoning of the
committee. He drew our attention to the order passed in
favour of the Petitioner's father which is a cyclostyled
order, which does not indicate any reference to the serious
interpolation caused in the school record. Based on such
order, the vigilance cell in the case of the Petitioner
recorded a finding that the Petitioner has passed the
affinity test in the light of his father's statement dated
29.03.2017.
...
...
32. The judgment in the case of the Petitioner's father
Laxman, is identical to hundreds of judgments delivered
by the V.S. Patil Committee with regard to "Koli
Mahadev". There is not a single sentence referring to the
serious interpolation which changed the description of
Laxman's social status from "Koli" to "Koli Mahadev".
This creates a world of a difference because the social
status of the Petitioner changes from "Koli", Special
Backward Class (SBC) to "Koli Mahadev", Scheduled
Tribe category. Since a cyclostyled order was pulled out to
be used in Laxman's case, there is not even a whisper to
the interpolation, in the said order. In these circumstances,
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this Court cannot blindly accept the said order and the
validity in favour of Laxman so as to be relied upon for
granting a validity certificate to the present Petitioner. If
this is so done, we are of the view that this would cause
travesty of justice."
5. Rutuja cousin of the petitioners, Rajnandini the real sister
of petitioner no. 1 and Atharv cousin of the petitioners, have been
granted validity certificates vide orders passed by this Court on
03.09.2024, 18.07.2019, respectively. The very material was before the
Division Bench, which decided those Writ Petitions. It is true that the
record indicates that the petitioners and their forefathers were shown in
the school record to have belonged to 'Mannurvar' OBC category.
Moreover, those validity holders appears to have suppressed the fact
that Govind and Kiran have not been granted validity certificate. The
fact, however, remains that close relations of the present petitioners
have been granted conditional validity certificates in the aforesaid two
writ petitions. It's not a case of obvious fraud. The validity holders are
not before us to address the objections raised by learned APP. The only
course, therefore, available for us is to grant the petitioners conditional
validity certificates.
6. In view of the above, the Writ Petition partly succeeds in
terms of the following order :
ORDER
i. Writ Petition is partly allowed.
ii. The order impugned herein is set aside.
iii. Respondent no. 2 - Scrutiny Committee is directed
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to issue the petitioners validity certificates indicating them
to have belonged to 'Mannervarlu' scheduled tribe.
iv. The validity certificates to be issued in favour of the
petitioners shall be co-terminus with the validity
certificates issued in favour of Rajnandini, Atharv and
Rutuja and those whose cases have now been reopened
and on whose validity certificates the petitioners have
relied on.
( ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, J. ) ( R. G. AVACHAT, J. )
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