-1- W.P. No. 7052 of 2009 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 7052 OF 2009 Tukaram Shankar Patil ....Petitioner versus Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee and others ... Respondents Mr. R.M. Momin for the petitioner. Mr. V.S. Gokhale, AGP, for the State. CORAM: P.B. MAJMUDAR & R.M. SAVANT, JJ. DATE: JULY 23, 2010. P.C. By this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner challenges the order dated 6th April, 2009 passed by the Caste Scrutiny Committee by which order the appeal filed by the petitioner against the order passed by the Sub­Divisional Officer rejecting the application for issuance of caste certificate as belonging to Mahadeo­Koli, came to be rejected by the Caste Scrutiny Committee and consequently the order passed by the Sub­ Divisional Officer, who is the Competent Authority, came to be confirmed. 2. The petitioner is a resident of Tal. Chandgad, Dist. Kolhapur and he applied to the Competent Authority i.e. Sub­Divisional Officer for issuance of -2- W.P. No. 7052 of 2009 caste certificate in terms of the Act of 2001 as belonging to Mahadeo Koli, S.T. The petitioner relied upon certain documents relating to his near relations like brother, sister and grand­father. The said documents were considered by the Sub­Divisional Officer and the Sub­Divisional Officer, on such consideration, was of the view that the petitioner had not produced any cogent material which could be acceptable for the purposes of issuing the said caste certificate to the petitioner as belonging to Mahadeo Koli. The Sub­Divisional Officer also observed that the petitioner did not possess a single document of the pre­ constitutional period i.e. Pre­1950 in support of his case. The Sub­Divisional Officer also observed that the petitioner had not placed on record any documents to indicate that the petitioner’s family had migrated from the original abode of the Tribe to the area in question after the area restrictions were removed in the year 1960. The Sub­Divisional Officer, therefore, rejected the application of the petitioner for issuance of the caste certificate as belonging to Mahadeo Koli by his order dated 24th March, 2008. 3. Being aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner filed an appeal before the Caste Scrutiny Committee as provided under Rule 8 of the Caste Certificate Rules, 2003 which appeal came to be rejected by the Caste Scrutiny Committee by the impugned order dated 6th April, 2009. In so rejecting the appeal filed by the petitioner, the Caste Scrutiny Committee has gone into the material on record as also considered the petitioner’s answers in the affinity test. -3- W.P. No. 7052 of 2009 4. We have perused the impugned order passed by the Caste Scrutiny Committee as well as the initial order passed by the Sub­Divisional Officer. The said orders have been passed rejecting the appeal and the application of the petitioner for cogent reasons. We do not find any illegality or infirmity in the said orders for us to interfere in our extraordinary writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. Writ petition is accordingly dismissed. P. B. MAJMUDAR, J. R.M. SAVANT, J.