1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 6534 OF 2010 IN WRIT PETITION NO.4181 OF 1995 The Scheduled Tribe Caste Verification Committee Applicant. Versus Gokul Waman Patil Respondents Mr. P.S. Patil Advocate for the petitioner Mr. S.R. Baglinge, Advocate for the respondent. CORAM : B.R. GAVAI & S.V. GANGAPURWALA,JJ.. DATE : 29th July, 2010. PER COURT : 1] All these civil applications are filed by the Scheduled Caste s and Scheduled Tribes Caste Verification Committee, Nandurbar for extension of time limit, as imposed by this court while disposing of writ petition NO. 4181/1991 vide judgment and order dated 24th July, 2003. 2] It is a pathetic situation, that an application for extension of time as fixed by judgment and order dated 24th July, 2003, are being filed in 2010. The reasons given in the application as could be noticed from para.5 and 6 are as under :- [i] After formation of the Nandurbar Committee there are about 8,000 matters pertaining to the area coming within the jurisdiction of the said committee pending adjudication before it. 2 [ii] The regular post of Joint Commissioner and Vice President were filled in, on 8th October, 2008 and the regular posts of Deputy Director and Senior Research Officer were filled in, on 24th September, 2008 and 25th September, 2009, respectively. [iii] That, one Research Officer is under suspension and the other Research Officer is required to take leave due to ill health, as such, there is no requisite coram for deciding the matters. [iv] That, the posts of 2 stenographers are sanctioned to the committee. Both posts are vacant. The only stenographer who was working is under suspension and as such, the committee is required to hire the services of the stenographers on daily wages. 2] The Committees for verification of the claims of the persons belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes were required to be constituted in furtherance of the directions issued by the Apex Court, in the case of "Ku. Madhuri Patil Vs. Additional Commissioner " reported in AIR 1995 SC 94. Detailed directions have been given in the aforesaid judgment as to what shall be the constitution of the committees and as to what procedure shall be followed by it. 3] In pursuance to the judgment of the apex court cited supra, the State of Maharashtra, has enacted the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of ) Caste Certificate Act, 2000. In the said Act and rules framed thereunder, the matters pertaining to the constitution of the committees and procedure to be followed by these committees has been given a statutory effect. 4] A Division Bench of this court in the case of "Yashwant Motiram Suryawanshi and others Vs. State of Maharashtra and others" reported in 3 2006(2) Bom.CR. 193, had an occasion to consider , as to whether, the State of Maharashtra has in fact implemented the directions given by the Apex Court in the case of Ms. Madhuri Patil or not. The Division Bench , in the aforesaid case has noted the observations of the Apex Court in the case of Ku. Madhuri patil, as under : "Since the procedure could be fair and just and shorten the undue delay and also prevent avoidable expenditure for the State on the education of the candidate admitted/appointed on false social status or further continuance therein, every State concerned should endeavour to give effect to it and see that the constitutional objectives intended for the benefit and advancement of the genuine Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes or Backward Classes,as the case may be are not defeated by unscrupulous persons”. 5] After considering the rival submissions, this court found that the State of Maharashtra had failed to translate the directions given by the Apex Court in reality and has, in fact, flouted the directions given by the Apex Court. The Division Bench, therefore, gave the following directions vide its judgment and order dated 10/6/2005, which are reproduced hereinbelow :- “(A) The Committees constituted by the State must be strictly in consonance with the judgment of the Apex Court in Madhuri Patil's case, (B) Henceforth the Committees must work on full time basis (C) The Committees are directed to complete the enquiry of caste/tribe verification within a period of not exceeding two months and after enquiry if the committee finds that the claim to be false or spurious, they should pass an order cancelling the certificate issued and confiscate the same. 4 The Committee should communicate the result of the conclusion of the proceedings within one month. [D] In case it is not possible for the existing Committees to adhere to the strict guidelines given by the Apex Court, we direct the State to appoint larger number of Committees to ensure that the Apex Court's directions are strictly complied with. [E] We further direct that all vacancies in these committees and the supporting staff including the vacancies of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Police Inspectors, Research Officer, Lower Grade Stenographers, Steno-Typist, Clerk/Typists, Drivers, Peons, must be filled in within two months. [F] The Vigilance Committee be constituted in consonance with the directions issued by the Apex Court [G] The Research Officer as directed by the Apex Court in 2nd judgment in the case of Madhuri Patil (Supra) in which the Court mentions that alongwith the Vigilance Cell, one Research Officer/Tribal Development or Social Welfare Officer would be associated in finding the social status of eligibility of the officers.” . The Division Bench also directed the Principal Secretary, Tribal Development Department and the Principal Secretary Social Justice Department to closely supervise the functioning of these committees to ensure that the Apex Court directions are strictly complied with. The court had further directed the Secretaries to submit a report to this court regarding the pendency of the various claims pending before the Committees every quarterly. 5 6] We are at pains to observe that, in spite of specific directions issued by this court, way back in 2005, the State of Maharashtra has failed to give effect to the directions of the Apex Court and this court, in the judgment cited supra. 7] As observed by the apex Court in the case of “Ku. Madhuri Patil”, the constitution of the committees is necessary to give effect to and see to it that the constitutional objectives intended for the benefit and advancement of the genuine scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are not defeated by unscrupulous persons. In view of the specific mandate given by the Apex Court, so also by this court, the State of Maharashtra is duty bound to provide the necessary infrastructure to these committees so that they can effectively discharge the duties assigned to them. 8] On a query, we are informed that at present there are 8 committees working in the State of Maharashtra for verification of the claim of the Tribals. 40 posts of members are sanctioned for these 8 committees, however, only 29 members are functioning at present. As such, as on today, there are 11 vacancies. 9] We are further informed that there are no posts of English Stenographer in most of the committees. We are informed that though there are sanctioned posts of stenographer in all the committees, the posts of English Stenographer are lying vacant since the year 2000. We are further informed that in Nandurbar Committee, there is no post of Marathi Stenographer. It is further informed that out of the 40 posts of Research Officer, only 28 are working and 12 posts are vacant. 10] Merely constitution of the Committees by the State would be an exercise in futility unless the posts of all the members are filled in and requisite staff is provided to the said committees. In the absence of the 6 posts being filled in, and the necessary infrastructure being provided, the committees would be helpless in discharging their duties. We are shocked to note that since 2000, the posts of stenographers are not filled in by the Government. The committees are not expected to function in absence of the basic infrastructure. 11] It could further be seen that Section 9 of the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of ) Caste Certificate Act, 2000, reads thus :- “9. Civil Court powers to Competent Authority, Appellate Authority and Scrutiny Committee : - The Competent Authority, the Appellate Authority and the Scrutiny Committee shall, while holding an enquiry under this Act, have all the powers of a Civil Court while trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and in particular in respect of the following matters, namely :- (a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person examining him on oath; (b) requiring the discovery ad production of any document' (c) receiving evidence on affidavits; (d) requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any Court or office; and (e) issuing Commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents.“ 12] It can thus clearly be seen that the Scrutiny Committee, while holding the enquiry under the Act, would exercise various powers which the civil courts exercise while trying the suit under the Code of Civil Procedure. Thus, it can not be disputed that the functions of the committee are quasi judicial in nature. 7 13] When a committee is constituted under the directions of the Apex Court, for the purpose that the constitutional benefits guaranteed under the Constitution to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, are not usurped by the unscrupulous elements, in discharging its function the State is duty bound to provide all necessary infrastructure and facilities to the committees. 14] We, therefore, issue the following directions to the State Government :- [1] All the posts of the Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committees (Tribal) shall be filled in within a period of six months from today. [2] All the posts of Research Officer and stenographer sanctioned to all the committees in the State shall be filled in within a period of six months from today. [3] We make it clear that the Chief Secretary of the State of Maharashtra and Principal Secretary of the Tribal Development Department shall be personally responsible for complying with these directions. 15] One more thing that needs to be noted here is that though the committees are performing quasi judicial functions, we have, on many times noticed that the committees are not following the procedure prescribed by law. In many case, complaints are being made that the committees are not affording proper opportunity to the claimants and that the proceedings before the committees are conducted in a casual and caveliar manner. As already discussed hereinabove, the committees discharge an important quasi judicial function and are also clothed with the powers of a civil court as provided under section 9 of the said Act. We , therefore, expect the Government to see to it that the proceedings of the said committees are held in open like the one in court or Tribunal, so that the scope for allegations of not following the procedure and not acting in a fair manner, 8 are done away with. We are further constrained to observe that though various Bench of this court, after taking into consideration that the functions exercised by the Committee are quasi judicial in nature have directed that necessary training should be given to them, though certain training programmes are held, much more needs to be done in that respect as well. 17] One of us (Gavai, J.) had an occasion, while sitting in a Division Bench, to deal with the functioning of the Committees under the Social welfare Department. ( i.e. Writ Petition No.2189 of 2007). Vide order dated 31st August, 2009, in the said writ petition, this court had also directed the State Government to consider, as to whether a combined training programme could be arranged for the members of the Tribal Welfare Department and Social Welfare Department, inasmuch, it would avoid multiple training sessions and would also save on the costs on training. 18] The learned Govt. Pleader who is personally present in the court, is requested to communicate this order to the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary Tribal Development Department, who shall be personally held responsible for complying the above directions. 19] We further direct the State Government to appoint a committee to examine as to whether the present sanctioned strength of the staff to the committees is sufficient to cope up with the huge pendency of the work pending before it. The said committee should be directed to submit its report to the State Government within a period of six months from today. It is further directed that if the said committee finds that additional posts are required to be sanctioned for the committees, the State Government shall take necessary steps for filling up the additional posts, within a period of six months from the date of report, that would be submitted by the aforesaid committee. 9 20] In these peculiar circumstances, finding that it is not the fault on the part of the committee in not deciding the matters within the stipulated period, we allow the application for extension of time for deciding the cases, and extend the period by six months. [S.V. GANGAPURWALA,J.] [B.R. GAVAI,J.] grt/wp