WRIT PETITION NO. 7623 OF 2018

11th June 2019

Petitioner Counsel: Shri Anil Mardikar Shri S.G. Joshi
Respondent Counsel: Mrs. S.S. Jachak Shri S.R. Narnaware
Act Name:

Section :

Cases Cited :
Para 2: Apoorva d/o Vinay Nichale Vs. Divisional Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee No.1 & others – 2010(6) Mh.L.J. 401
Para 2: Mangesh Nivrutti Kashid Vs. District Collector, Satara & others – 2012(5) Mh.L.J. 473

JUDGEMENT

Sunil B. Shukre, J.

Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent.

2. In this case, the Scrutiny Committee has rejected the validity certificate issued in favour of 'Sanket', admittedly the son of the petitioner by the Amravati Scrutiny Committee on 11/07/2008 on the spacious ground that no proper procedure was followed by the then Amravati Scrutiny Committee in granting validity to Sanket Hivrale. The Scrutiny Committee in the process turned oblivious of the fact that it has no appellate jurisdiction conferred upon it over another Scrutiny Committee and it's jurisdiction is equivalent. Apart from this, the Scrutiny Committee also can be ignorant of the fact that a validity certificate issued by the competent Committee is a conclusive proof of the social status of the person in whose favour such certificate is issued. Therefore, it is not open to a Scrutiny Committee to question the correctness or otherwise of such a certificate till the time that certificate is quashed and set aside by a Court of competent jurisdiction or any other competent authority. Surely, a Scrutiny Committee enjoying coordinate and equal powers cannot be such competent authority. There is also no power of review conferred upon the Scrutiny Committee in such cases. This is also the view taken by different Division Benches of this Court. In the case of Apoorva d/o Vinay Nichale vs. Divisional Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee No.1 & others – 2010(6) Mh.L.J. 401, in paragraph 9, the Division Bench has observed that just because a different view on the same facts is possible, it would not entitle the Committee dealing with the subsequent caste claim to reject the claim of that person. This view has been followed in Writ Petition No.2901/2018 decided on 09/04/2019. If a Scrutiny Committee is permitted to reject the validity certificates issued by the other Scrutiny Committee, as conclusive proof of the social status of the certificate holder, there would be a chaos in fact and in law. There would be, within the same family, several persons belonging to different castes, different tribes and different communities. A proper procedure in a case where there is a doubt about the correctness of the validity certificate issued to one of the family members at the earliest point of time, is to challenge the validity certificate and get it invalidated from the competent forum. In the case of Mangesh Nivrutti Kashid vs. District Collector, Satara & others – 2012(5) Mh.L.J. 473 heavily relied upon by the learned Counsel for respondent No.6, it were the High Court which had set aside several validity certificates on the ground that no proper procedure was followed. Such powers, however, are not enjoyed by a Scrutiny Committee in the sense that the Scrutiny Committee cannot reject the validity certificate issued by the another Committee on the ground that proper procedure has not been followed. Therefore, the case of Mangesh (supra) would be of no assistance in the present case to respondent No.6.

3. In addition to what has been stated above, we find that there is also one more validity certificate existing in the family of the petitioner and it is a certificate issued by Buldhana Scrutiny Committee in favour of the nephew of the petitioner. Of course, this certificate was not before the Scrutiny Committee in the present matter. But, the fact remains that there is one more validity certificate existing in the family of the petitioner.

4. In view of the above, we find that the impugned order cannot be sustained in the eye of law and it deserves to be quashed and set aside. The impugned order is quashed and set aside. The Scrutiny Committee is directed to issue validity certificate to the petitioner as he belonging to “Khatik – Scheduled Caste” within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of the order.

5. Rule is made absolute in the above terms with no order as to costs.