Santoshi Shankar Jayewar And Others v. The State Of Maharashtra Through Its Secretary And Others

2025:BHC-AUG:19272-DB WP-8196-2025.odt

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY

BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 8196 OF 2025 1.

Santoshi Shankar Jayewar Age: 27 years, Occupation: Student 2.

Dattatraya Maroti Jayewar, Age: 40 years, Occupation: Service 3.

Shankar Gaganna Jayewar, Age: 53 years, Occupation: Service 4.

Shrilekha Sainath Jayewar, Age: 14 years, Occupation: Student 5.

Nikhil Ganesh Jayewar Age: 17 years, Occupation: Service Petitioner Nos. 4 and 5 through guardian Petitioner No.3, Above all R/o: Kundalwadi, Taluka Biloli, District Nanded ... PETITIONERS

VERSUS

1.

The State of Maharashtra Through its Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai-32 2.

The Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Kinwat Division, Aurangabad, Through its Member Secretary 3.

The Sub-Divisional Officer, Biloli, Nanded, Maharashtra

(( 2 )) 4.

The Chief Administrative Officer, Atomic Energy Education Society (Regd.) Central Office, Western Sector, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai-400 094 5.

The Chief Officer, Nagar Parishad, Kundalwadi, Office of Chief Officer, Kundalwadi, Taluka Bilili, District Nanded ... RESPONDENTS ....

Mr. A. D. Sonkawade, Advocate for the Petitioners Ms Saie S. Joshi, AGP for the Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 - State Ms Sudha S. Kulthe (Chintamani), Advocate for Respondent No.4 ....

CORAM : MANISH PITALE AND Y. G. KHOBRAGADE, JJ.

DATE : 22.07.2025 ORDER: (Per: Y. G. Khobragade, J.) 1.

By the present Writ Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the Petitioners who are the blood relatives, have assailed the order dated 09.05.2025, passed by Respondent No.2 Scrutiny Committee, thereby invalidating "Mannervarlu" Scheduled Tribe claim of the Petitioners.

2.

Issue notice to the Respondents. The learned AGP waives notice for Respondent Nos. 1 to 3. Ms Sudha S. Kulthe, the learned

(( 3 )) counsel waives notice for Respondent No.4. Respondent No.5 is a formal party, therefore, notice in respect of Respondent No.5 is dispensed with.

3.

Having regard to the submissions canvassed on behalf of both sides, we have gone through the record.

4.

Petitioner No.1 is the daughter of Petitioner No.3. Petitioner No.2 Dattatraya is the son of Maroti Jayewar. Maroti is the son of Naganna. Petitioner No.4 is the daughter of Sainath. Sainath is the son of Nagnath. Petitioner No.5 Nikhil is the son of Ganesh. Shri Sainath and Ganesh are the sons of Gangadhar and grandchildren of Naganna. As per the record, 8 conditional validities have been granted by this Court by passing orders in various Writ Petitions, so also, 8 validity certificates have been granted by Respondent No.2 under various orders in favour of the Petitioners' blood relatives as under:- Sr.

No.

Name Date Granted by 1.

Jagdish Lachamanna Jayewar 27.05.2008 Committee 2.

Gangadhar Sayanna Jayewar 27.05.2008 Committee 3.

Marothi Pottanna Jayewar 30.09.2008 Committee 4.

Raju Lachamanna Jayewar 01.06.2009 Committee

(( 4 )) 5.

Chiranjeev Krishna Jayewar 07.06.2010 Committee 6.

Shankar Nagnath Jayewar 20.07.2010 Committee 7.

Jayewar Manisha Shankar 14.10.2010 Committee 8.

Rupali Krushna Jayewar 18.12.2010 Committee 9.

Krushna Nagnath Jayewar 15.10.2011 Committee 10.

Ravi Dattatray Jayewar 04.12.2023 High Court WP 11740 of 2018 Conditional 11.

Shyam Gangadhar Jayewar 04.12.2023 High Court WP 11719 of 2018 Conditional 12.

Shubham Gangadhar Jayewar 04.12.2023 High Court WP 11719 of 2018 Conditional 13.

Sainath Gangadhar Jayewar 04.12.2023 High Court WP 11719 of 2018 Conditional 14.

Sainath Nagnath Jayewar 13.02.2025 High Court WP 11930 of 2024 Conditional 15.

Vinayak Shankar Jayewar 13.02.2025 High Court WP 11930 of 2024 Conditional 16.

Swetha Sainath Jayewar 13.02.2025 High Court WP 11936 of 2024 Conditional 17.

Dinesh Krishna Jayewar 25.02.2025 High Court WP Conditional 5.

Since the paternal blood relatives of the Petitioners have conditional validity certificates, they are also entitled to have

(( 5 )) "Mannervarlu" Scheduled Tribe certificates on parity with their paternal relatives.

6.

Therefore, taking into consideration the law laid down in the cases of Mah. Adiwasi Thakur Jamat Swarakshan Samiti Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors.; AIR 2023 SC 1657, Shweta Balaji Isankar Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors., 2018 SCC Online Bom. 10341, Apoorva Vinay Nichale Vs. Divisional Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee No.1 and Ors., 2010(6) Mh.L.J. 401, wherein it has been concluded that when the biological father, biological siblings, biological uncle etc., are granted validity certificates, a candidate so related to them, cannot be deprived of a validity certificate, the present Petitioners are entitled to have certificates of validity.

7.

The learned AGP submitted that on 04.12.2023, the Division Bench of this Court passed the order in Writ Petition No.11719 of 2018 (Shyam Gangadhar Jayewar and others Vs. The State of Maharashtra and others), and granted conditional validity. Accordingly, the Petitioners therein served with notice. However, the said notice has been challenged by the Petitioners therein in Writ Petition No.11635 of 2021 and the said Writ Petition is pending.

(( 6 )) Therefore, the Petitioners are entitled for Scheduled Tribe validity certificates.

8.

Needless to say that, this Court has passed the orders in various Writ Petitions as mentioned above and granted conditional Scheduled Tribe Certificates in favour of blood relatives of the Petitioners, the present Petitioners are also entitled to have "Mannervarlu" Scheduled Tribe validity certificates, subject to the result of Writ Petition No.11635 of 2021. Accordingly, we are inclined to grant the present Petition and we proceed to pass the following order:-

O R D E R

(i) The Writ Petition is allowed.

(ii) The impugned order dated 09.05.2025, passed by Respondent No.2 Scrutiny Committee, is hereby quashed and set aside. (iii) Respondent No.2 Scrutiny Committee shall issue "Mannervarlu" Scheduled Tribe validity certificates in favour of the Petitioners within a period of four weeks, which shall be subject to following conditions:- (a) The caste validity certificate shall be subject to the outcome of the re-verification of the validity certificate of their blood relatives proposed by the Scrutiny Committee.

(( 7 )) (b) The Petitioners shall not claim any equity. (c) The Petitioners shall cooperate with the Scrutiny Committee. [ Y. G. KHOBRAGADE, J. ] [ MANISH PITALE, J. ] SMS