IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD. WRIT PETITION NO.3921 OF 2009 Kum.Shweta d/o Balaji Naikwad, Age Minor, Occu.Education, R/o at Post Degloor, Tq.Degloor, District Nanded through natural guardian/father Shri Balaji s/o Kishanrao Naikwad, Age 34 years, Occu.Nil, 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 K.J.Ghute Patil, 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 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 27.1.2009 and the order of Scrutiny Committee dated 30.4.2009 in appeal confirming the order of the Sub-Divisional Officer rejecting the application of the petitioner for issuing a caste certificate as belonging to Mahadev Koli – 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 father of the petitioner. The aforesaid document is a document at item No.5 in the order of the Sub- Divisional Officer. The Sub-Divisional Officer rejected the application of the petitioner on the ground that in the school record of the grandfather of the petitioner, the caste of the grandfather was recorded as “Koli” and the word “Mahadev” appeared to have been added subsequently. The Scrutiny Committee principally on the ground that the father of the petitioner had been granted certificate, remanded the matter back to the Sub-Divisional Officer. According to us, this order is wholly unjustified as it would further protract the process of adjudication for issuance of caste certificate. The committee itself, instead of remanding the matter back to the Sub-Divisional Officer, should have directed the issuance of caste certificate. 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/3921.09wp