1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 3753 OF 2009 Sow Mangala W/o Santosh Walkale ..PETITIONER VERSUS The State of Maharashtra and others RESPONDENTS ..... Mr. V.D. Gunale, advocate for petitioner. Mr. S.V. Kurundkar, Addl. G.P. for respondent nos. 1 and 3. Mr. R.P. Phatke, Advocate for respondent no.2. ..... (CORAM : SMT. NISHITA MHATRE AND M.T. JOSHI, JJ. DATED : 7th June, 2011. ORAL ORDER : Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith by consent. 2. The petitioner's grievance is that the Caste Scrutiny Committee i.e. the Respondent no.2 has invalidated her caste certificate without applying its mind to the documents referred. The petitioner claims that she belongs to the Mahadeo Koli scheduled tribe. An affinity test was conducted and a report of the Vigilance Cell was submitted to the Committee. It appears from the decision of the Committee that the petitioner was invited for a personal hearing on 23rd March, 2009, but she was unable to attend on account of her indisposition. From the decision of the Committee, it is apparent that the petitioner had submitted affidavits with the genealogy, stating that her brother had been issued a caste validity 2 certificate indicating that he belongs to the Mahadeo Koli scheduled tribe. Unfortunately, the Committee has not cared to consider the earlier paragraphs in its order, while drawing its conclusion that "the candidate has failed to produce any validity certificate of his blood relatives with necessary affidavits, with family tree". This is utter non-application of mind on the part of the Committee. 3. In our opinion, therefore, the Petition must be allowed and the matter be remanded to the Scrutiny Committee for a fresh decision. The Scrutiny Committee will afford a personal hearing to the petitioner. The Committee will decide the validity of the petitioner's caste claim within three months from today. All the documents which are already on record, will be taken into consideration by the Scrutiny Committee while passing its order. Rule made absolute accordingly. (M.T. JOSHI, J.) (SMT. NISHITA MHATRE, J.) ga s/wp3753.09