1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, APPELLATE SIDE NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR Writ Petition No. 1156 of 2008 Ashwin Vyankatrao Anjikar Vs. State of Mah. & Ors. Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court orders or directions and Registrar's orders Court's or Judge's orders Shri R. R. Shrivastava Adv. for petitioner. Shri D. P. Thakre AGP for respondent-1. Shri S. M. Puranik Adv. for respondents-3,4. CORAM: D. D. SINHA & C. L. PANGARKAR JJ. Dated: 11 th June, 2008. Heard Shri Shrivastava learned counsel for the petitioner. This writ petition is directed against the order passed by the Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee dated 14.02.08 invalidating the caste claim of the petitioner as belonging to 2 Halba Scheduled Tribe. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the Caste Scrutiny Committee has ignored the document of grandfather's brother which pertains to year 1958 dated 05.12.1958. It is contended that the said document that is Caste Certificate issued by Deputy Collector there is mention about the caste of the brother of grandfather of the petitioner i.e. “Halba”. It is contended that this being an old document has more probative value than the other documents on record and therefore Caste Scrutiny Committee ought not to have ignored this document. It is, therefore, submitted that the order impugned is not sustainable. Shri Puranik the learned counsel for the Caste Scrutiny Committee submitted that the said document has been rejected by the 3 Caste Scrutiny Committee in view of the another document pertaining to father of the petitioner i.e. School Register Extract of the year 1952 wherein caste of the father of the petitioner has been mentioned as Koshti. We have consider the impugned order and peruse the record. Perusal of the impugned order shows that document dated 05.12.1958 was rejected by the Committee because the said certificate cannot be treated to be a conclusive proof for establishing the fact that the petitioner belonged to the said caste since all such caste certificates are always subject to verification. However, in the instant case the Police Vigilance Cell has collected the document pertains to year 1952 which is School Register Extract of the father of the petitioner wherein the caste of the father of the petitioner is shown as “Koshti”. 4 In the circumstances conclusion arrived at by the Caste Scrutiny Committee that the petitioner failed to establish that he belonged to Halba Scheduled Tribe is just and proper. So far as direction issued by Caste Scrutiny Committee to prosecute the petition is concerned, this issue is kept open. Similarly in view of the order dated 09.06.2008 passed in Writ Petition No. 1154 of 2008 by this Court, challenge to the validity of the composition of Caste Scrutiny Committee does not survive. Petition suffers from lack of merit, hence dismissed. JUDGE JUDGE svk