1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 4922 OF 2009 Ashlesha D/o. Ashok Naikwade, Age-Minor, Occu-Education, R/o.At-Post-Hanegaon, Tq.Degloor, Dist : Nanded Through father natural guardian, Shri.Ashok S/o.Ramrao Naikwade, Age-43 years, Occu-Service, R/o. As above. PETITIONER VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra, Through secretary to Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai. 2. The Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Verification Committee Aurangabad, Through its Dy.Director (R), Aurangabad. 3. The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, District-Nanded RESPONDENTS Mr.S.M.Vibhute, learned counsel for petitioner. Mr.V.B.Ghadge, learned AGP for respondent no.1 and 3. Mr.P.P.Phatake, learned counsel for respondent no.2. (CORAM : P.V.HARDAS AND A.V.POTDAR, J.J.) DATE : 29/07/2009 ORAL JUDGMENT : (Per A.V.Potdar, J.) 2 1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent of the respective counsels, the writ petition is taken up for final hearing at the stage of admission. 2. By the present writ petition under Article 226 of The Constitution of India, the petitioner has challenged the order passed by the Caste Scrutiny Committee Aurangabad Division Aurangabad dated 30/03/2009, as by the said order the members of the Scrutiny Committee have confirmed the order passed by The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor dated 27/01/2009 on the application filed by the petitioner for issuance of the caste certificate. 3. Heard learned counsels for the parties. With the assistance of learned counsels appearing for petitioner and respondents, perused the record and proceeding produced alongwith the writ petition. While considering this record and proceeding, it is necessary to consider the facts which gave rise to file the present writ petition, which can be summarized as follows. Vide application dated 17/10/2008, an application was filed by the petitioner for issuance of caste certificate as the petitioner claims that she belongs to Koli Mahadev Scheduled Tribe. This application was accompanied with various documents including the extract issued in the school register in the name of father of the petitioner in which caste of father of the petitioner was shown as Koli Mahadev and the caste certificate issued by the Executive Magistrate/Tahsildar in favour of father of the petitioner in which caste of the father of the 3 petitioner is shown as Mahadev Koli which is re-cognized as Scheduled Tribe at Sr.No. 29. After considering all the documents produced by the petitioner alongwith the application for issuance of caste certificate, the learned Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor vide his order dated 27/01/2009 pleased to reject the said application on the ground that the documents produced by the applicant alongwith the application are not sufficient to hold that the petitioner applicant is entitled for issuance of the caste certificate that she belongs to Koli Mahadev which is Scheduled Tribe. Being aggrieved by the said order passed by The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, the petitioner filed an appeal bearing case No. Appeal/NAN/89/2009 before The Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad. By the order dated 30/03/2009, the members of the Scrutiny Committee have blindly accepted the order passed by The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor by observing that “the Scrutiny Committee deeply observed the order passed by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Degloor, District : Nanded and the documentary evidence submitted by the appellant alongwith the proposal and the Committee have specified that the order passed by The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, hence no interference is required”. 4. On perusal of the documentary evidence tendered before the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor for issuance of caste certificate by the applicant which clearly shows that the applicant has produced the caste certificate issued in favour of her father, as well as caste of her father was recorded in the school record as “Koli Mahadeo”. It is but 4 natural that the daughter will be entitled to the caste of her father. In the premise, it is apparent that the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor dated 27/01/2009 and the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee in Appeal dated 30/03/2009 is without proper application of mind about the documentary evidence tendered by the applicant petitioner. Hence the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor dated 27/01/2009 and the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee dated 30/03/2009 to be quashed and set aside and accordingly we quashed and set aside the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor dated 27/01/2009 and the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee in appeal dated 21/02/2009 and we direct the Sub Divisional Officer Degloor to issue the requisite caste certificate to the petitioner that petitioner is belongs to Koli Mahadeo. 5. We hereby make it clear that even though we have directed The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor to issue the caste certificate to the petitioner as petitioner belongs to Koli Mahadev, Scheduled Tribe. This caste certificate issued in favour of the petitioner is subject to the caste validity certificate to be issued by the competent authority. 6. Thus the writ petition succeeds. Rule made absolute as indicated above. The writ petition stands disposed of with no order as to costs. (A.V.POTDAR, J.) (P.V.HARDAS, J.) khs/JULY 2009/wp4922-09