WP 1270/11 - 1 - IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.1270/2011 Ku.Abhilasha d/o Chandrabhan Shirsath, age 19 yrs., occu.student, r/o 39 of Gayatri Colony, Shirpur Tq.Shirpur Dist.Dhule. ...Petitioner.. Versus 1] The State of Maharashtra, through Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai-32. 2] Scheduled Tribes Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nandurbar, through its Secretary. 3] Principal, R.C. Patel Institute of Technology, Shirpur Dist.Dhule (M.S.). ...Respondents... ..... Shri D.R. Irale Patil, Advocate for petitioner. Smt.A.V. Gondhalekar, AGP for respondent no.1. Shri R.P. Phatake, Advocate for respondent no.2. Respondent no.3 served. ..... CORAM: D.B. BHOSALE & M.T. JOSHI, JJ. DATE: 08.04.2011 WP 1270/11 - 2 - PER COURT : 1] Heard learned counsel for the respective parties. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith for final disposal at the stage of admission with the consent of learned counsel for the respective parties. 2] In this writ petition, the petitioner has made the following prayers: "[B] The Hon'ble Court may be pleased to pass necessary order and quash and set aside the impugned order NO.1214/11 dated 11.02.2011 passed by the Principal, R.C. Patel Institute of Technology, Shirpur Dist.Dhule (Respondent no.3). [B-I] Quashing and setting aside the impugned order passed by the respondent no.3, the Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue directions for the Caste Scrutiny Committee, Nandurbar, to decide the claim of the petitioner within the time schedule as this Hon'ble Court deems fit in the interest of justice." 3] There is no dispute that the petitioner was admitted to First Year Engineering (Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering course) in the academic year 2010-11 being a candidate belonging to S.T. category. At the time of admission, the petitioner had not submitted caste validity certificate. It appears that after admission, respondent no.3 - Principal, R.C. Patel Institute of Technology WP 1270/11 - 3 - forwarded the petitioner's caste certificate for its validation to respondent no.2 - scrutiny committee. The scrutiny committee has not decided the petitioner's caste claim so far. In the mean time, respondent no.3 has issued the impugned letter dated 11.2.2011. By this letter, the petitioner was informed as under: "As you have failed to submit your caste validity certificate, your admission is cancelled. You have no claim on admission / allotted seat. You have no claim on refund of fees. You have no claim on category fee concession also. You will have to pay the remaining amount of fee (category fee concession) as per the fee declared by Shikshan Shulka Samiti, Mumbai, for this institute." It is in this background, the petitioner has filed present petition for the afore- mentioned prayers. 4] Prima facie, we do not find any fault on the part of the petitioner. Respondent no.3 forwarded the petitioner's caste certificate to respondent no.2 - scrutiny committee after giving him admission to the afore-mentioned course. Keeping that in view and considering overall facts and circumstances of the case, we are satisfied that this petition can be conveniently disposed of by the following order. WP 1270/11 - 4 - 5] Respondent no.2 - scrutiny committee shall decide the petitioner's caste claim as expeditiously as possible and preferably within a period of six months from the date of receipt of this order. Till then, respondent no.3 shall not act upon the impugned letter dated 11.2.2011. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner shall not claim any further benefit on the basis of the caste certificate unless the scrutiny committee validates the same. His statement is accepted. Rule is disposed of in terms of above order. No costs. Office to issue authenticated copy of the order to the learned counsel for the parties on demand. (M.T. JOSHI, J.) (D.B. BHOSALE, J.) ndk/84112