Shankar Laxman Mali Alias Surewad v. The State Of Maharashtra Through Its Principal Secretary And Others
2025:BHC-AUG:23885-DB :: 1 ::
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.4889 OF 2024 Shankar s/o Laxman Mali @ Surewad ... PETITIONER
VERSUS
The State of Maharashtra & ors.
... RESPONDENTS .......
Mr. C.R. Thorat, Advocate for petitioner Mrs. K.B. Patil Bharaswadkar, A.G.P. for State Mr. N.B. Narwade, Advocate for R.No.3 & 4 .......
CORAM : R.G. AVACHAT AND ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, JJ.
DATE : 4th SEPTEMBER, 2025 O R D E R :
Heard. The petitioner claims to have belonged to "Mannervarlu" - Scheduled Tribe. His caste certificate was subjected to validation. Along with the petitioner, there were other 10 claimants. The respondent Scrutiny Committee, vide impugned order, refused to grant the validity and turned down the claim of all those 11 persons, one of whom is the petitioner before us.
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2.
Without going into the factual matrix, we propose to dispose of this Writ Petition, since the petitioner's distant cousins namely Rutuja Raosaheb Suryawad and Mangesh Govind Surewad have been granted validity certificates pursuant to the orders passed by this Court on 18/7/2019 and 19/8/2025 in Writ Petition No.8712/2019 and Writ Petition No.2844/2025 respectively. The record indicates that, the relationship with these validity holders was not in dispute before the Scrutiny Committee. In view of the observations of the Apex Court in case of Maharashtra Adiwasi Thakur Jamat Swarakshan Samiti Vs. State of Maharashtra & ors. (AIR 2023 SC 1657), we are inclined to allow the Writ Petition partly in terms of the following order :
O R D E R
(i) The Writ Petition is partly allowed, setting aside the order impugned herein.
(ii) The respondent Scrutiny Committee shall grant the petitioner certificate validating his tribe claim to have belonged to "Mannervarlu" - Scheduled Tribe.
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(iii) The validity certificate to be granted to the petitioner shall be coterminus with the validity of his cousins namely Rutuja Raosaheb Suryawad and Mangesh Govind Surewad.
(ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, J.) (R.G. AVACHAT, J.) FMPathan/-