Shriram Virat Patil v. The State Of Maharashtra And Others
2025:BHC-AUG:32861-DB
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY,
BENCH AT AURANGABAD 994 WRIT PETITION NO. 13830 OF 2025 Shriram Virat Patil
VERSUS
The State Of Maharashtra And Others ...
Mr. Pratap V. Jadhavar, Advocate for the Petitioner Ms. J. P. Reddy, AGP for Respondents/State ...
CORAM : KISHORE C. SANT AND ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, JJ.
DATED : NOVEMBER 27, 2025 P.C.:
1.
The petitioner has approached this Court challenging the order passed by the learned Sub Divisional Officer, Dharashiv rejecting the application of the petitioner seeking caste certificate as 'Koli Mahadev', Scheduled Tribe.
2.
The learned Sub Divisional Officer by order dated 08.04.2024 has refused to grant certificate for the following reasons :- i.
No name of the caste is mentioned on Aadhar Card. ii.
Name of great grandfather, Tulshiram Narayan Patil is not shown as 'Koli Mahadev' in Khasra Patrak.
Iii.
No documents prior to 06.09.1950 is produced. iv.
No original documents or evidence is produced in spite of repeated reminders.
3.
The learned Advocate for the petitioner vehemently argues that on the Aadhar Card there is no requirement of writing the caste. So far
as second reason, he submits that at this stage it is not required as the same is to be verified by the Committee. There is no requirement of law to produce any document prior to 06.09.1950 for issuance of such certificate. So far as the fourth reason is concerned, this is not the stage to prove the caste claim of the petitioner. A person at this stage only requires a certificate which is subject to scrutiny by the Committee and therefore no concrete evidence is required at this stage. He relies on the judgment in the case of Samadhan s/o Suryakant Akoskar vs. The State of Maharashtra & Ors. reported in 2013(3) ALL MR 871, a judgment of this Court in Writ Petition No.782 of 2023 in the case of Rupali d/o Subhash Haidalwar Vs. Deputy Director (Research) and Member Secretary and Anr.
4.
The learned AGP opposes the petition vehemently. He submits that even for claiming the certificate from the Sub Divisional Officer, Sub Divisional Officer needs to be prima facie satisfied that such person belongs to a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe. In the present case, required documents were not submitted by the applicant to satisfy such requirements.
5.
This Court has heard the parties. This Court hardly finds that any strict proof is required at the stage of issuance of caste certificate by the Sub Divisional Officer. Such certificate is always subject to scrutiny by
the caste scrutiny committee/tribe scrutiny committee as the case may be. Looking to the judgments relied upon by the petitioner this Court find that case is made out to allow the petition and the same is therefore allowed in terms of prayer clauses 'B' and 'C'. 6.
Needless to say that the certificate issued by Sub Divisional Officer shall be subject to verification by the Caste Scrutiny Committee. 7.
Looking to the exigency, certificate be issued within one week from today.
[ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, J.] [KISHORE C. SANT, J.]