(1) WP6228-09 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 6228 OF 2009 Sandip s/o Ravindra Bhadriwar, R/o Degloor, Tq. Degloor, District Nanded. PETITIONER VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra, through its Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai. 2. The Scheduled Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division, Aurangabad, through its Deputy Director (R), Aurangabad. 3. The Sub-Divisional Officer, Degloor, Tq. Degloor, District Nanded. RESPONDENTS ..... Mr. P.V. Jadhavar, advocate for the petitioner. Mr. S.V. Kurundkar, A.G.P. for the Respondent-State. Mr. R.P. Phatake, advocate for the respondent No. 2. ..... CORAM : SMT. NISHITA MHATRE AND M.T. JOSHI, JJ. DATED : 9th JUNE, 2011 ORAL ORDER : 1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith, by consent. (2) WP6228-09 2. The petitioner's grievance is that the respondent No. 3 has incorrectly rejected the application submitted by him for issuance of a tribe certificate indicating that he belongs to the "Mannerwarlu" tribe. The petitioner has also impugned the order passed by the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee - respondent No. 2 herein, which has confirmed the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor. 3. The petitioner has produced several documents before the Sub Divisional Officer including his school records, the records issued by the Talathi, the Police Patil and several other authorities. Besides this, he has produced the caste certificates issued to his relatives. Thus, he had produced prima facie evidence indicating that he belongs to the "Mannerwarlu" tribe. 4. Unfortunately, the Sub Divisional Officer has discarded all these documents. The reason furnished by the Sub Divisional Officer is that there (3) WP6228-09 was no document which pertained to the years prior to year 1950 to establish the petitioner's claim. The Scrutiny Committee has, without any application of mind, concurred with the decision of the Sub Divisional Officer. 5. In our opinion, the Sub Divisional Officer while considering the application for issuance of a certificate indicating the tribe to which the petitioner belongs, has to only consider whether, prima facie, the petitioner is able to establish that he belongs to the "Mannerwarlu" tribe. It is not necessary for the Sub Divisional Officer to embark upon an inquiry which, normally, the Caste Scrutiny Committee would carry out while considering whether a caste certificate issued to a person should be validated. 6. In these circumstances, in our opinion, the petition deserves to be allowed. The petition is accordingly allowed in terms of prayer "B". Rule made absolute accordingly. (4) WP6228-09 7. The caste certificate shall be issued to the petitioner within three weeks from today. It is made clear that issuance of the caste certificate by the Sub Divisional Officer will not, in any manner, mean that the caste certificate issued has been validated by the Scrutiny Committee. The Scrutiny Committee, when approached, shall conduct an appropriate inquiry in accordance with law to ascertain whether such a certificate should be validated. [M.T. JOSHI, J.] [SMT. NISHITA MHATRE, J.] NPJ/wp6228-09