1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.6245 OF 2009 Jagdish s/o Rameshwar Bhute, Age : Minor, Occu.Education, Through Natural Guardian/Father Shri Rameshwar s/o Datta Bhute, Age : 36 years, Occu.Agril., R/o At Post Barbada, Tq. Naigaon, Dist. Nanded ..PETITIONER VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra, Through it's Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai -32 2. The Scheduled Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division, Aurangabad, Through its Deputy Director (R), Aurangabad 3. The Sub-Divisional Officer, Degloor, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded ..RESPONDENTS Mr P.V. Jadhavar, Advocate for the petitioner; Mr K.J. Ghute Patil, A.G.P. for respondents no.1 & 3; Mr R.P. Phatke, Advocate for respondent no.2. CORAM : P.V. HARDAS AND NARESH H. PATIL, JJ DATE : 18th September 2009 2 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 takes exception to an order dated 12.12.2008 passed by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Degloor and the order of the appellate authority dismissing the appeal filed by the petitioner. 3. It appears that the Sub-Divisional Officer, by impugned order rejected the application of the petitioner for issuance of a caste certificate as belonging to "Mannerwarlu" - Scheduled Tribe. The petitioner being aggrieved by the aforesaid order filed appeal before the Scrutiny Committee which also came to be dismissed. It appears that the petitioner placed reliance upon document at sr.no.5 which was the caste certificate issued to the father of the petitioner and the document at sr.no.6 which was the validity certificate issued to the cousin of the petitioner. The Sub- Divisional Officer declined to place reliance upon the aforesaid documents on the ground that the record in respect of the relatives of the petitioner showed that their caste was recorded as "Manurwar" and not "Mannerwarlu". 3 4. According to us, the Sub-Divisional Officer at that stage was only entitled to see if prima facie the material/certificate produced by the candidate unerringly established that the petitioner belonged to the caste or the tribe for which the certificate was requested for. In the present case since the father of the petitioner had been issued with the certificate, the Sub- Divisional Officer ought to have issued the certificate to the petitioner as belonging to "Mannerwarlu" - Scheduled Tribe. The certificate issued to the petitioner obviously would be subject to the verification to be conducted by the Scrutiny Committee. 5. In the light of that, we allow this petition and quash and set aside the impugned orders and direct the Sub-Divisional Officer, Degloor to forthwith issue the certificate to the petitioner as belonging to "Mannerwarlu" - Scheduled Tribe. 6. Rule is thus made absolute on the above terms with no order as to costs. ( NARESH H. PATIL ) ( P.V.HARDAS ) JUDGE JUDGE amj/wp6245.09 4