Mangesh Maroti Sudewad v. The State Of Maharashtra And Others

1 WP13113.2021.odt

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

BENCH AT AURANGABAD.

WRIT PETITION NO. 13113 OF 2021 Mangesh s/o Maroti Sudewad, Age : 18 years, Occu. Student, R/o. Mendka, Tq. Mudkhed, Dist. Nanded.

....Petitioner

Versus

1.

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

2.

The Commissioner & Competent Authority, Government of Maharashtra, State Common Entrance Test Cell, 8th Floor, New Exclesior Building, A. K. Nayak Marg, Fort, Mumbai.

3.

Deputy Director (Research) and Member Secretary, Scheduled Tribe Certificate Verification Committee, Near Saint Lawrence High School, Town Centre, CIDCO, Aurangabad, Dist. Aurangabad.

....Respondents ......

Mr. Chandrakant R. Thorat - Advocate for the petitioner Mr. S. G. Sangle - AGP for respondent/State ......

CORAM : MANGESH S. PATIL AND NEERAJ P. DHOTE, JJ.

DATED : 30TH OCTOBER 2023 ORDER [ Per : Neeraj P. Dhote, J. ] : - 1.

Heard learned advocate for the petitioner and the learned AGP for respondent/State, for final disposal. Perused the papers.

2 WP13113.2021.odt 2.

The order dated 08.11.2021 passed by the Respondent No. 3 / Scrutiny Committee invalidating the tribe claim of the petitioner towards 'Mannervarlu' Scheduled Tribe is under challenge in this petition. The petitioner is the student and is having the tribe certificate of belonging to 'Mannervarlu' Scheduled Tribe. His tribe claim came to be referred to the Respondent no. 3 - Scrutiny Committee, which has invalidated the same by the impugned order. 3.

It is submitted by the learned advocate for the Petitioner that the Respondent No. 3 - Scrutiny Committee neglected the vital documents which are the validity certificates granted in favour of the petitioner's father and the real uncle towards 'Mannervarlu' Scheduled Tribe. He submitted that the Respondent No. 3 - Scrutiny Committee only considered the entries found during the vigilance inquiry in the documents of the relatives of the Petitioner as 'Munurwar' and corrections in the documents. He submitted that when the father of the Petitioner is holding the validity certificate, the Petitioner cannot be denied the validity certificate towards the said tribe claim.

4.

It is submitted by the learned AGP that since the Committee noticed the entries contrary to 'Mannervarlu' community in the vigilance cell report, the Committee came to a conclusion that

3 WP13113.2021.odt the validity holders gave insufficient information and suppressed the school and revenue record from the Committee. He submitted that the Committee has decided to re-open the cases of validity holders in the Petitioners family. He submitted that no interference is called for the in the impuned order.

5.

The genealogy is not in dispute. The validity certificate towards 'Mannervarlu' Scheduled Tribe issued by the Scrutiny Committee to the father, uncle and other relatives of the Petitioner is not in dispute. True, that the Respondent No. 3 / Scrutiny Committee noticed that there are entries such as 'Mannerwar', 'Mannerwad' in the school records of the relatives of the petitioner, the validity certificates issued to the father and uncle of the Petitioner cannot be ignored, in the light of the principles laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Maharashtra Adiwasi Thakur Jamat Swarakshan Samiti Vs. State of Maharashtra and Ors. reported in 2023 SCC Online SC 326.

The other aspects considered by the Scrutiny Committee in respect of affinity test and area restrictions cannot be held good in the light of principles laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the cases of Palghat Jilla Thandan Samudhaya Vs. State of Kerala and Another reported in (1994) 1 SCC 359, Jaywant Dilip Pawar Vs. State of Maharashtra and Ors. reported in 2018 (5) ALL MR 975.

4 WP13113.2021.odt certificate. Thus, we proceed to pass the following order :

ORDER

[i] The Judgment and Order dated 08.11.2021 passed by the respondent no. 3 - Scrutiny Committee, is quashed and set aside.

[ii] The Scrutiny Committee shall issue tribe validity certificate in favour of the Petitioner as 'Mannervarlu' within a period of two weeks from today, which shall be subject to the following conditions;

[a] the validity certificate shall be subject to the outcome of the re-verification proposed to be undertaken by the Scrutiny Committee.

[b] the petitioner shall not claim any equity.

6.

Writ Petition is, accordingly, disposed of.

[NEERAJ P. DHOTE] [MANGESH S. PATIL] JUDGE JUDGE SG Punde