1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH : NAGPUR WRIT PETITION ST. NO. 7078 OF 2010 (Sou. Sandhya Manik Zanjal vs. The Returning Officer & Ors.) Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. CORAM : B.P. DHARMADHIKARI, J. APRIL 15, 2010. Heard Shri Morande, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Mujumdar, learned AGP for the respondents. The contention of learned counsel is, as per Government Resolution dated 17.07.2009, the notice of election ought to have been published by the Collector six months before i.e. at least in the month of October 2009. After the notice was published belatedly, the petitioner immediately submitted her caste claim for verification on 01.04.2010 and she is yet to receive validity. He points out that the earlier application was in the year 2006. He also points out that though some other persons applied for validity later on, they have been given necessary validity by Caste Scrutiny Committee. He relies upon clause 4 of Government Resolution to show that within three months the Caste Scrutiny Committee has to decide the caste claim and in any case the decision needs to be delivered within a 2 period of four months. I have perused the papers. The nomination paper of the petitioner has been rejected on 12.04.2010. It is obvious that that earlier application is not in response to present election notification and after that application, the petitioner slept over her rights till 01.04.2010. It is also an admitted position that it is not accompanied by validity certificate issued by Scrutiny Committee. The perusal of Section 10 (1A) of Bombay Village Panchayat Act, 1958, shows that a person desirous of contesting, has to submit caste certificate issued by the Competent Authority and the validity certificate issued by Scrutiny Committee. The said requirement is not satisfied in this matter. The learned counsel has contended that the word “and” used in that provision employing submission of caste certificate issued by Competent Authority together with validity certificate of Scrutiny Committee needs to be read as “or”. According to him, if the Caste Scrutiny Committee is not functioning or then over burdened, the scrutiny committee may not issue certificate within specified time and candidates will be required to be suffer for no faults on their part. It is apparent that before this Court, the order of rejection dated 12.04.2010 has been questioned. Respondent No. 2 – authority could not have overlooked the requirement of Section 10(1-A) of the Act. The arguments at this stage are at least 3 misconceived. The fact that some other candidate could obtain validity immediately within short time by itself is not decisive. The fact and circumstances of each case may differ and the time required by Scrutiny Committee will also, therefore, differ. In the absence of such individual facts, contention that some candidates could secure caste validity certificate from Caste Scrutiny Committee immediately, is of no assistance to the petitioner. No case is made out warranting any interference in writ jurisdiction. Writ Petition is, therefore, dismissed. However, there shall be no order as to costs. JUDGE *GS.