1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD. WRIT PETITION NO.3910 OF 2009 Rohit s/o Ravishankar Markante, Age Minor, Occu.Education, R/o At Post Bhokasheda, Tq.Degloor, District Nanded, through natural guardian/father Shri Ravishankar s/o Masnaji Markante, Age 40 yrs., Occupation Service, 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 Deputy Director (R), Aurangabad 3. The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist.Nanded .. Respondents Shri S.M.Vibhute, Advocate for petitioner Shri N.N.Jadhav, AGP for respondent No.1 & 3 Slhri M.S.Deshmukh, Advocate for respondent No.2 CORAM : P.V.HARDAS AND R.K.DESHPANDE, JJ DATE : 26th JUNE, 2009 2 ORAL JUDGMENT [ PER P.V.HARDAS , J ] 1. Rule. Rule returnable forthwith. With the consent of learned Counsel for the parties, this petition is heard finally at the stage of admission. 2. The petitioner by this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India impugns the order of the Sub-Divisional Officer, Degloor dated 6.12.2008 and the order of Scrutiny Committee dated 30.3.2009 in appeal confirming the order of the Sub-Divisional Officer rejecting the application of the petitioner for issuing a caste certificate as belonging to Koli Mahadev – Scheduled Tribe. 3. The petitioner who was desirous of obtaining a caste certificate, submitted an application before the Sub-Divisional Officer, Degloor. The petitioner heavily relied upon the validity certificate granted to the petitioner’s father. The aforesaid document is a document at item No.6 in the order of the Sub- Divisional Officer. The Sub-Divisional Officer did not choose to place any reliance upon the said document on the ground that the census documents disclosed that the caste of some of the relatives of the petitioner was recorded as “Koli”. According to us, at this prima facie stage of consideration of the material, the validity granted to the father would far outweigh any contrary 3 entries made in respect of some of the relatives of the petitioner. In the light of that, therefore, we are inclined to allow this petition. 4. Accordingly, this writ petition is allowed. The impugned orders are hereby quashed and set aside. The respondent No.3 – Sub-Divisional Officer, Degloor is hereby directed to forthwith issue the caste certificate to the petitioner as belonging to Koli Mahadev – Scheduled Tribe. 5. Rule is thus made absolute on the terms indicated above with no order as to costs. ( R.K.DESHPANDE ) ( P.V.HARDAS ) JUDGE JUDGE vvr/3910.09wp 4