1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD. WRIT PETITION NO.3901 OF 2009 Suresh s/o Rajaram Sapkale Age 45 years, Occu.Service, R/o Old Satara, Koliwada, Bhusawal, Tq.Bhusawal, District Jalgaon .. Petitioner Versus 1. The State of Maharashtra Through its Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai 32 2. The Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims, Nandurbar Division, Nandurbar .. Respondents Shri A.G.Talhar, Advocate for petitioner Shri K.J.Ghute Patil, AGP for respondent No.1 Shri 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 2. The limited grievance of the petition in this petition is that the respondent No.2 – Committee may be directed to decide the validity proceedings pending before the Committee. 3. Such of the facts as are necessary for the decision of this petition may briefly be stated thus. . The petitioner claims to be belonging to Tokre Koli – Scheduled Tribe and accordingly, a certificate to that effect came to be issued by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Bhusawal. The certificate of the petitioner came to be forwarded to respondent No.2 – Scrutiny Committee sometime in the year 2007 for verification. According to the petitioner, various stages of the process of verification of the tribe claim of the petitioner were completed and lastly the petitioner was personally heard on 4.3.2008. However, since 4.3.2008 no decision in this behalf has been communicated to the petitioner. 4. We have heard Shri Talhar, learned Counsel for the petitioner, Shri K.J.Ghute Patil, learned AGP for respondent No.1 – State and Shri M.S.Deshmukh, learned Counsel for respondent No.2 – Committee. The learned Counsel for respondent No.2 – Committee is unable to state before us if the process has been concluded. Since the matter is pending for passing orders since 4.3.2008, we direct the respondent No.2 – Scrutiny Committee to 3 decide the tribe claim of the petitioner, in accordance with law, if not decided so far, within four weeks from today and communicate the decision thereon to the petitioner. 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/3901.09wp) 4