1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH : NAGPUR WRIT PETITION NO.1513 OF 2011 (Mansi Umakant Sherekar vs. The Scheduled Tribes Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee and others) __________________________________________________________________ Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. CORAM : D.D. SINHA AND A.P. BHANGALE, JJ. DATED : MARCH 28, 2011 Heard Shri Deshpande, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner, Shri Puranik, learned Counsel for the respondent no.1, Mrs. Deshpande, learned Assistant Government Pleader for the respondent nos. 2 and 3, and Shri Jaiswal, learned Counsel for the respondent no.4. Shri Deshpande, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner, states that the petitioner has secured admission in the M.B.B.S. Course from Scheduled Tribe (Halbi) category. It is submitted that caste certificate and the documents submitted by 2 the petitioner in support thereof were forwarded to the respondent Caste Scrutiny Committee for verification. However, since Caste Scrutiny Committee failed to take decision, petitioner approached this Court by filing Writ Petition No.5217/2010, which was disposed of by this Court vide order dated 10/12/2010, which reads thus : “Heard. By way of last chance, the period to decide the caste claim of the petitioner is extended by another ten weeks from today, as was granted by this Court vide order dated 6 th May, 2010 passed in Writ Petition No.2215 of 2010. Till then, the interim relief will continue. In the event, the order is adverse to the petitioner, the same should not be acted upon for a period of fifteen days. The petition stands disposed of in terms of this order.” It is submitted by the learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner that in spite of direction issued by this Court, the Caste Scrutiny Committee has not decided the caste claim of the petitioner within a stipulated period and hence, the petitioner has preferred this petition. It is prayed that the Caste Scrutiny 3 Committee may be given a positive direction to decide the caste claim of the petitioner within a stipulated period and admission of the petitioner may be protected. Shri Puranik, learned Counsel for the respondent no.1, states that for sometime, properly constituted Caste Scrutiny Committee was not functioning and even today, there is some problem about composition of the Caste Scrutiny Committee. However, it is submitted that caste claim of the petitioner shall be decided within a period of six months from today provided validly constituted Caste Scrutiny Committee is available. Be that as it may, it is necessary for the Caste Scrutiny Committee to decide the caste claim of the petitioner. In fact, this Court vide order dated 10/12/2010 has already directed the Caste Scrutiny Committee to do so within a stipulated period. However, taking into consideration, the difficulty faced by the Caste Scrutiny Committee, we now direct the Caste Scrutiny Committee to decide the caste claim of the petitioner within six months from today without fail. Till such time, the admission of 4 the petitioner need not be disturbed by the respondents. With these observations and directions, the petition is disposed of. JUDGE JUDGE khj