CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS NO. 32119 OF 2000 ****** ( In the matter of application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ) ****** WAKIL RAM, SON OF SHRI GANESH RAM, RESIDENT OF VILLAGE RAJPUR, POLICE STATION RAJPUR, DISTRICT BUXAR ………………………..…………………………………………….……...PETITIONER VERSUS THE STATE OF BIHAR ………………..……………..……OPPOSITE PARTY ******************** P R E S E N T THE HON'BLE JUSTICE SMT. SHEEMA ALI KHAN O R D E R Sheema Ali Khan, J. This application has been filed for quashing of the First Information Report of Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes Case No. 41 of 2000 (G.R. No. 09 of 2000) instituted in the year 2000, alleging therein that the petitioner has wrongly declared himself to belong to the member of Scheduled Tribes and, therefore, is liable to be prosecuted under Sections 499, 420, 465, 468, 471, 120B of the Indian Penal Code and the provisions of the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The petitioner was appointed in the police services in the year 1976 on the basis of a caste certificate showing him to be KHARWAR issued in the year 1973. 2 Counsel for the petitioner relies on the impeachable documents to indicate that the concerned caste comes within the Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes. Firstly, Counsel for the petitioner refers to Annexure-3 to indicate that there are 217 persons who belong to the Schedule Tribes who live in Rajpur, the place where the petitioner belongs. It is further submitted that it would be apparent from Annexure-8 i.e. the gazette notification, that the petitioner belongs to a backward community. Annexure-8 reads as follows:- “It is hereby notified to all concerned that all community and members of Al India Kharagbanshi (Kharwar) Kshatriya Mahasobha herebefore termed as „Kahar‟ or „Kamkar‟ or „Ram‟ be permitted to use surnames „Singh‟, „Verma‟ or „Ram‟ for all purpose and for all time to come in Zamindari Registers, Service Records and in Schools and Colleges including Electoral Rolls.” The notification aforesaid refers to KHARWAR as being members of the Schedule Caste. It is submitted that the syndicate and the State Government recognized KHARWAR to belong to the community equivalent to KAHAR. This fact would further be confirmed and clear from Annexure-10, which is a notification by the Personal & Administrative Reforms 3 Department of the State Government vide letter no. 151 dated 06th November, 1991, This notification indicates that vide letter no. 2477 dated 29.10.1956, the State Government had included GOND as one of the members of the Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes. On the other hand, the Central Government vide memo no. 25 dated 25.02.1991 had also declared KHARWAR as belonging to the Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes. No counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the State which would indicate that KHARWAR does not belong to the Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes. In the circumstances, if the caste of the petitioner has been declared to be Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes, it cannot be said that the petitioner had wrongly stated any fact regarding his caste to get service. I may emphasis that Counsel for the petitioner submits that the State has not moved departmentally against the petitioner for wrongly producing a certificate showing himself to be the member of the KHARWAR caste within the Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes. In the result, this Court finds that in fact there is no substantial offence committed by the petitioner under the sections for which the criminal case 4 has been lodged. Accordingly, the First Information Report of Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes Case No. 41 of 2000 (G.R. No. 09 of 2000) is hereby quashed as far as it concerns the above named petitioner. In the circumstances, this application is allowed. ( Sheema Ali Khan, J. ) PATNA HIGH COURT DATED, THE 13th DECEMBER, 2010 N.A.F.R./ANAND