1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.4744 OF 2008 WRIT PETITION NO.4744 OF 2008 WRIT PETITION NO.4744 OF 2008 Shri Shivkumar Siddhiling Koli .. Petitioner vs. The Schedule Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Pune and Ors. .. Respondents Mr.Mandar Limaye for the petitioner Mr.C.R.Sonawane, A.G.P. for respondent nos.1 and 3 CORAM: J.N. PATEL, & CORAM: J.N. PATEL, & CORAM: J.N. PATEL, & Smt.MRIDULA BHATKAR, JJ. Smt.MRIDULA BHATKAR, JJ. Smt.MRIDULA BHATKAR, JJ. DATE: APRIL 16, 2009 DATE: APRIL 16, 2009 DATE: APRIL 16, 2009 P.C. 1. Heard. 2. The petitioner has impugned the order dated 24.03.2008 passed by the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Pune Region, Pune. The petitioner obtained the Caste Certificate from the Tahsildar and Executive Magistrate, North Solapur vide No.MAGCA/STE-SR/327/95 dated 1.11.95 that he belongs to Caste Koli Mahadev which is notified as Scheduled Tribe 2 as the petitioner had applied for the post of Project Officer in the Executive Director, Social Development and Research Institute, F1/A5, Awantinagari, Solapur against post reserved for Scheduled Tribe category. His caste certificate was referred to the Scrutiny Committee. In support of his caste claim, the petitioner submitted documents such as the school record of himself, brother, father, aunt and uncle. It has been rightly observed by the Caste Scrutiny Committee that the documents have been obtained subsequently and no documents have been placed by the petitioner prior to 1950 in support of his caste claim. Thereafter, the matter was referred to the Vigilance Cell who conducted an home enquiry. The Vigilance Cell obtained documents of relative, cousin grandfathers and aunts of the petitioner whose caste claim are recorded as Koli and also recorded the statement of the father of the petitioner relating to his traditional occupation in order to collect the material as to whether the petitioner is affiliated to caste Koli Mahadev recognised as Scheduled Tribe. 3. The report of the Vigilance Cell was furnished to the petitioner who disowned the material collected 3 by the vigilance cell in respect of the caste of the relatives of the petitioner. Except for this, the petitioner did not make any effort to place on record any document to show what was the caste of his grand father and other relatives. Though genealogical tree was furnished but caste documents of the ancestors were not placed on record. The peculiar anthropological and ethnological traits, deity, rituals, customs, mode of marriage, death ceremonies and other parameters of which the particulars were furnished during the enquiry conducted by the vigilance cell, the petitioner or his father were not able to substantiate that he belongs to Koli Mahadev Scheduled Tribe. 4. Considering this material on record, the Scrutiny Committee came to the conclusion that the petitioner does not belong to caste Koli Mahadev and thereby invalidated the certificate and confiscated the same. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that respondent Caste Scrutiny Committee had not examined the caste claim of the petitioner in the context of the documents placed on record. It is contended that the caste scrutiny committee cannot ignore the documents merely because they are post 1950 4 era and as the petitioner is not in possession of any record of his grand father and other ancestors, it cannot be denied that he does not belong to caste Koli Mahadev Scheduled Tribe. 5. In our view, the decision of the caste scrutiny committee does not suffer from any error or illegality. The burden of proof that a person belongs to a particular case so as to avail the benefits conferred by the Constitution on Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe consequently falls on the shoulder of the claimant. Except for denying the documents collected by the Police vigilance cell by disowning the relatives whose documents have been collected on his own, the petitioner has not placed on record any other material in support of his caste claim. Therefore, the only inference which can be drawn is that the petitioner has suppressed the truth from the Scrutiny Committee. In so far as a bonafide test is concerned, the petitioner has not been able to place on record any social traits, customs and traditions which would go to establish that he belongs to caste Koli Mahadev Scheduled Tribe and therefore, there is no merits in the petition. Petition is dismissed. 5 (J.N. Patel, J.) (J.N. Patel, J.) (J.N. Patel, J.) (Smt. Mridula Bhatkar, J.) (Smt. Mridula Bhatkar, J.) (Smt. Mridula Bhatkar, J.)