1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.5157 OF 2009 Ramnath S/o.Shankarrao Bombilwar, Age-22 years, Occu-Student, R/o.Hingani, Tq.Biloli, Dist. Nanded PETITIONER VERSUS 1. Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist.Nanded. 2. Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Verification and Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad, Through its Member Secretary RESPONDENTS Mr.A.B.Madke, h/f. Mr.S.S.Phatale, learned counsel for the petitioner. Mr.V.H.Dighe, learned AGP for respondent no.1 and 3 Mr.R.P.Phatake, learned counsel for respondent no.2. (CORAM : P.V.HARDAS, AND A.V.POTDAR, J.J.) DATE : 21/08/2009 ORAL JUDGMENT : (Per A.V.Potdar, J.) 1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent of the parties, this petition is heard finally at the stage of admission. 2. By the present writ petition under Article 226 of The 2 Constitution of India, the petitioner has challenged the judgment and order passed by the Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad vide order dated 30/03/2009 rejecting the appeal no. 801/2008 by upholding the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor dated 06/12/2008 by which the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor has rejected the application filed by the petitioner applicant for issuance of caste certificate as the petitioner claimed that he belongs to Mannerwarlu Scheduled Tribe. 3. The facts which gave rise to file the present writ petition can be summarized as follows. The petitioner applicant has filed an application for issuance of caste certificate as he claimed that he belongs to Mannerwarlu on 18/06/2008 before Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor. Alongwith the said application, number of documents were produced by the applicant. Vide order dated 06/12/2008, the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor has rejected the application on the ground that the documentary evidence produced by the applicant petitioner is not sufficient for issuance of caste certificate as claimed by him. Being aggrieved by the said order, an appeal was preferred before the Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad, which was numbered as 801/2008 and it was also rejected by the Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad vide judgment and order dated 30/03/2009 by confirming the order passed by Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor. These orders are impugned in the present writ petition. 3 4. In this background, heard respective learned counsels for the parties. 5. During the course of submissions across the bar, reliance is placed by the learned counsel for petitioner on the document at Sr.No.7 i.e. the affidavit and caste validity certificate issued in the name of Smt.Surekha Moglaji Shirsetwar who claimed to be the real sister of the present petitioner applicant. We are not satisfied with the documents produced alongwith the writ petition by the petitioner applicant, and given directions to the counsel appearing for the Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad to produce the original file/the record of the case. On perusal of the record produced by the counsel for Scrutiny Committee Aurangabad Division Aurangabad, we found that the record and proceeding is before the Scrutiny Committee. It has issued the validity certificate to said Smt.Surekha Moglaji Shirsetwar. In the application filed for issuance of caste validity certificate by the said Smt.Surekha Shirsetwar in the application, name of her father is shown as Shankarrao Ramanna Bombilwar. On perusal of the genealogy produced in the said file, we satisfy from the documents in the file that the said Surekha Moglaji is the sister of Ramnath Shankarrao Bombilwar to whom the caste validity certificate is issued by the Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad. The applicant has also filed the affidavit of his father wherein it is stated that the father of the applicant petitioner is illiterate. In the premise, once the validity certificate is issued to the real sister of the present 4 applicant petitioner, then this document is sufficient to prima facie hold that there is prima facie sufficient documentary evidence for issuance of caste certificate to petitioner that he belongs to Mannerwarlu Scheduled Tribe. 6. In the premise, we quash and set aside the impugned judgment and order passed by the Scrutiny Committee Aurangabad Division Aurangabad as well as the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor rejecting the application of the petitioner for issuance of caste certificate and we hereby direct Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor to issue the caste certificate to the petitioner that he belongs to Mannerwarlu Scheduled Tribe. 7. Needless to say that the caste certificate to be issued will be subject to verification by competent Scrutiny Committee. 8. Rule thus made absolute as indicated above, and accordingly the writ petitions stand disposed of with no order as to costs. (A.V.POTDAR, J.) (P.V.HARDAS, J.) khs/AUGUST 2009/wp5157-09