1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 2803 OF 2007 1. Baburao Parsu Koli 2. Suresh Baburao Koli Ekta Colony, At Post Ajara Tal. Ajara, Dist. Kolhapur .. Petitioners Versus 1. State of Maharashtra Through its Secretary, Tribal Development Dept. Mantralaya, Mumbai-32 2. Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Pune Division, Pune Through its Deputy Director and Member Secretary, 28, Queen's Garden, Pune 411 001 3. Sub Divisional Officer Gadhinglag Sub Division, Dist. Kolhapur 4. Competent Authority & Director, Technical Education Maharashtra State, 3, Mahapalika Marg, Dhobi Talao, Mumbai 400 001 5. Principal, Walchand College of Engineering Vishrambag, Sangli. 6. Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Dist.Kolhapur. .. Respondents 2 Mr. R. K. Mendadkar, for the petitioners Mr. C. R. Sonawane, AGP for respondent Nos.1 to 4. CORAM:V. C. DAGA, & MRS. MRIDULA BHATKAR,JJ. Dated: 17th March, 2009 ORDER (Per Mridula Bhatkar, J.) 1. The petitioners have challenged the judgement and order dated 27.2.2007 passed by the Respondent No.2- committee invalidating the caste certificates of the petitioners belongs to Mahadeo Koli- Scheduled Tribe (S.T.) in the present petition. 2. Factual Matrix : Petitioner No.1 is the father of Petitioner No.2 and they claimed that they belong to Mahadeo Koli caste which falls under Scheduled Tribe. Petitioners hail from village Ajara, Dist. Kolhapur. The petitioner No.1 has filed earlier Writ Petition No. 2417/92 to obtain the Caste Certificate. The petitioner No.1 was subsequently granted caste certificates. Thereafter, the petitioner No.2, his sister Veena and uncle Shankar Parsu Koli have applied for Caste certificate. However, the applications of Petitioner No.2 and his sister Veena were rejected by the Respondent No.3- Sub-Divisional Officer, Gadhinglaj. Since at the material time, no appeal was provided against the wrongful refusals of Caste Certificate, the petitioner No.2 and his above relatives filed Writ Petition No. 4002 of 1998 and the Division Bench of this Court directed to the Sub 3 Divisional Officer to issue Caste Certificates to the petitioners and accordingly Petitioner No.2 and his sister Veena were granted caste certificates. Thereafter, the petitioner No.2 had applied to the Respondent No.2 -Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutinee committee for verification of his Caste claim and produced documents to prove that he belongs to Mahadeo Koli- tribe. The Police Inspector of the Vigilance cell had, after recording the statement of petitioner No.1 and his brother- Shankar Parsu Koli, submitted a report. The Respondent No.2 Committee relied upon the entries in the record showing caste of the petitioner and his brother as Hindu Maratha and invalidated their caste certificates, vide order dated 4.8.2006 observing that petitioners failed to prove from the traits, characteristic, customs observed by his family that they belong to Mahadeo Koli. 3. In the meantime, during pendancy of the decision on the claim of the petitioners before the Respondent committee, the petitioner No.2 sought admission in the Respondent No.5 college for the academic year 2005-2006 and there, he was required to submit validity certificate within 90 days from the date of admission. Therefore, the petitioner again filed Writ petition, bearing W.P. No. 2888/2006 seeking expeditious decision by the respondent committee which was allowed by this Court. Accordingly the committee decided the application and invalidated the caste certificate of petitioners by order dated 4.8.2006. The petitioner challenged the said order by filing Writ petition No. 6768/06. The matter was remanded to the respondent No.2 committee for fresh 4 consideration. However, the Scrutiny Committee vide order dated 27.2.2007, again invalidated the caste certificate of the petitioner. Hence the petitioners filed this petition to challenge the said order under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. 4. Respondents have filed affidavit in reply denying the submissions and contentions of the petitioners. It was contended that the claim of the petitioners was rightly invalidated by the committee vide order dated 27.2.2007. It was submitted that the petitioners are of Hindu Maratha caste and not of Mahadeo Koli. The respondents produced photocopy of extract of the birth register dated 2.2.1998 along-wth remarks manipulation of the words “Mahadeo Koli”. It was argued that the petitioners are Hindu Maratha and they don't fall in Scheduled tribe and hence this petition be dismissed. 5. Submissions : Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioners belong to Mahadeo Koli which fall under Scheduled Tribe category. In support of their caste claim the petitioners have filed birth extract of Appa Satya Koli,- real brother of the grandfather of the petitioner from paternal side, dated dated 26.11.1914 which, according to the learned counsel, is a genuine and clinching piece of evidence to which no weightage was given and same was not properly considered by the committee. Reference was also made to the decisions of this Court pursuant to which the petitioners have obtained Caste Certificates and submitted that the decisions of 5 this Court were on the basis of various caste entries and and they have attained finality for want of challenge. So, contending that the decision of the committee is arbitrary, irrational and perverse, the petitioners prayed to quash and set aside the impugned order dated 27.2.2007 with direction to the Respondent No.2 committee to issue Caste validity Certificates in favour of the petitioners as belonging to Mahadeo Koli- Scheduled Tribe. 6. Consideration : From the history given by the petitioners, it appears that the petitioners have knocked doors of the High Court repeatedly to obtain valid caste Certificates. Pursuant to the High Court orders, the Scrutiny Committee has finally given its verdict on 4.8.2006 invalidating caste certificates of the petitioners and again confirmed the same on 27.2.2007 when the matter was remanded back. The Scrutiny committee, at the time of verification of the Caste certificate has considered all the 45 documents submitted by the petitioners. The order reveals that except one document i.e. the document at Sr.No.18 which is of 1977, all other documents were of recent origin and prepared to establish that they are Mahadeo Koli. 7. This being the caste matter, we have to consider the correctness and legality of the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee, considering the evidence appreciated by the Scrutiny committee. One old document i.e. birth extract of Appa Satya Koli,- real brother of grandfather of the petitioner from paternal side, dated 26.11.1914 was produced by the petitioners. 6 However, that extract was not issued in 1914 but was issued on 16.4.2004. The scrutiny committee has taken efforts to verify the said document and transferred the document and matter to the Inspector of Vigilance Cell for verification of the document. Tahsildar Ajara, by letters dated 6.12.2005 and 14.12.2005 replied in Marathi, that the birth register is very old and torn and so the impugned birth extract cannot be furnished. In the case of Deepika Subhash More Vs. State of Maharashtra in writ petition No. 1953/2007, the Division Bench of this Court observed that- “.... the scrutiny committee to verify the claim not only by relying on the documents submitted but also by applying the affinity test”. 8. The Petitioner could not prove either his father or his grandfather or his brother or any near blood relative belong to Mahadeo Koli. Apart from the failure to prove the document, shocking fact was brought to our notice by the learned Advocate for the respondents in the affidavit in reply through the Photostat copies of the birth register of the petitioner and his relatives which shows that birth extract of 1955-54 showed them as Hindu Maratha and subsequently words “Mahadeo Koli” were added. Thus, the documentary record clearly shows that their – caste is recorded as Hindu Marathi and subsequently Mahadeo Koli is inserted. Thus, this is enough evidence to arrive at the concussion that the records were manipulated with a view to take the benefits of the reservation. The caste Scrutiny Committee, while deciding the caste claim of the petitioner has also taken into accounts the traits, characteristic, customs, tradition and other 7 details furnished by the petitioners and their relatives and compared the same with the existing traits, characteristic, customs, tradition of Mahadeo Koli and opined that the family is ignorant of traits and characteristic of the community claimed. 9. In view of this circumstance mentioned above, the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee cannot be said to be illegal or incorrect. It need not be interfered with. Apart from this, this Court not being a Court of appeal is not expected to re- appreciate the evidence once again unless any perversity is shown. No such thing is brought to our notice. The view taken by the Scrutiny committee is reasonable and possible view based on the evidence on record. In the result, the petition stands dismissed in limine with no order as to costs. ( MRIDULA BHATKAR, J. ) (V. C. DAGA, J.) jpc/