1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.685 OF 2010 Madhav s/o Prakash Manthewad, R/o- At Post-Rui (Kh.), Tq-Naigaon (Kh.), Dist-Nanded, Through power of attorney holder, Ganpati s/o Maruti Chanchalwad, R/o-As above. ...PETITIONER. VERSUS 1) The State of Maharashtra, Through Secretary to Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai. 2) The Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Verification Committee, Aurangabad, Through its Dy. Director (R), Aurangabad, 3) The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist-Nanded. ...RESPONDENTS. ... Mr.S.M. Vibhute Advocate for Petitioner. Mrs.A.V. Gondhalekar, A.G.P. for Respondents. ... 2 CORAM: A.M. KHANWILKAR AND S.S. SHINDE, JJ. DATE : 5TH FEBRUARY, 2010. PER COURT : 1. Heard learned counsel for the parties. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent of the learned counsel for the parties, the matter is taken up for final hearing at the stage of admission itself. 2. By this Petition, the Petitioner challenges the order passed by the Respondent No.3 dated 4th September, 2009 and the Respondent No.2 dated 27th October, 2009. By the said order, the Petitioner's request for issuance of caste certificate has been rejected. 3. Insofar as the Competent Authority is concerned, it has discarded the documents pressed into service by the Petitioner. The Petitioner had relied on the caste certificate of Petitioner's 3 grand father and also other relevant record, which would support the case of the Petitioner. Notwithstanding that the Competent Authority rejected the application preferred by the Petitioner. The Petitioner carried the matter in appeal before the Committee, who merely reiterated the position stated by the Competent Authority by sweeping observation that the conclusion drawn by the Competent Authority was satisfactory. 4. In the past, we have deprecated such approach of the Committee. Since the Committee is expected to decide the appeal on issues of facts as well as law, it cannot merely observe in one sentence that the opinion of the Competent Authority is correct and proceed to dismiss the appeal. The Committee is expected to analyze the efficacy of the documents which are pressed into service and also examine the correctness of the approach adopted by the Competent Authority with reference to such documents. 4 5. In the present case, since the Petitioner was relying on the caste certificate of his grand- father as also other relevant documents, the Competent Authority was obliged to issue caste certificate, which would have been made subject to consideration of its validity by the Caste Scrutiny Committee. Since the evidence relied by the Petitioner was not only pertaining to the Petitioner but also close blood relation of the Petitioner, the request made by the Petitioner ought to have been accepted by the Competent Authority itself. 6. In the circumstances, we allow this Petition by setting aside the impugned decision and instead, direct the Competent Authority to issue caste certificate to the Petitioner forthwith. 7. We have noticed that similar approach is adopted by the Competent Authority as well as the Committee in matters of issuance of caste certificates inspite of the consistent view of 5 this Court that once the incumbent produces caste certificate or validity certificate of close blood relation, the Competent Authority ordinarily should accede to the request and issue caste certificate, which however, will be subject to the out-come of the decision of the Scrutiny Committee. We hope and trust that the Secretary of the Social Welfare Department will issue necessary directions to all the Competent Authorities to decide such claims by adopting uniform approach, so that it will not only facilitate issuance of caste certificate at an early date but also avoid litigation in the form of appeal and Writ Petitions, which are filed more than often by the incumbents invoking the same argument. 8. Rule is made absolute on the terms indicated above. Writ Petition is disposed off accordingly. [S.S. SHINDE, J.] [A.M. KHANWILKAR, J.] asb/FEB10/wp685.10