Manish Shekhar Chintal And Others v. State Of Maharashtra Through Its Secretary And Others

2025:BHC-AUG:27520-DB :: 1 ::

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY

BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.12043 OF 2025 Manish Shekhar Chintal & ors.

... PETITIONERS

VERSUS

The State of Maharashtra & ors.

... RESPONDENTS .......

Mr. R.K. Mendadkar, Advocate with Mr. V.G. Gangalwad, Advocate for petitioners Mrs. D.S. Jape, A.G.P. for State .......

CORAM : R.G. AVACHAT AND ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, JJ.

DATE : 1ST OCTOBER, 2025 O R D E R :

Heard. The petitioners claim to have belonged "Koli Mahadev", Scheduled Tribe. Their tribe certificates were subjected to scrutiny. The respondent No.1 Scrutiny Committee, by its common order dated 12/9/2025, turned down the petitioners' claim. They are, therefore, before us. 2.

We have heard the learned Advocate for the petitioners extensively. The petitioners rely on four validity

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certificates granted by the Scrutiny Committee in favour of the petitioners' blood relations (real uncles). They also rely on old school record particularly of the year 1937 (oldest record), wherein the caste of the petitioners' forefathers has been shown as "Koli Mahadev".

3.

The learned A.G.P. would submit that, the entire school record relied on by the petitioners is in Urdu script. If the same is perused with open eyes, one will not spend time to infer the same to have been forged. According to her, all those entries have been made by one person in one go. There may be substance in the contention of the learned A.G.P. Therefore, at this stage, we do not prefer to observe anything about the genuineness of these documents. Suffice it to say, when the blood relations of the petitioners have been granted validity certificates by the Scrutiny Committee, we are inclined to grant the petitioners validity certificates conditionally. 4.

In view of the above, the petition partly succeeds. Hence the order :

O R D E R

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(i) The Writ Petition is partly allowed.

(ii) The order impugned herein is hereby set aside. (iii) The respondent No.2 Scrutiny Committee is directed to issue the petitioners validity certificates of "Koli Mahadev", Scheduled Tribe forthwith.

(iv) The validity certificates shall be conditional i.e. coterminus with the validity certificates with the validity certificates (4 in number) relied on by the petitioners in this case.

(v) The learned A.G.P. to communicate this order to the respondent No.2 Scrutiny Committee forthwith. (ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, J.) (R.G. AVACHAT, J.) fmp/-