1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD. WRIT PETITION NO. 3591 OF 2009. Kum. Saraswati Vijaykumar Nagshettiwar, Age 21 years, Occu. Education, Through its natural guardian i.e. Father namely Vijaykumar Bhujaram Nagshettiwar, Age 55 years, Occu. Agril., R/o Degloor, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded .. PETITIONER. VERSUS 1) The State of Maharashtra, Through Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai. 2) Scheduled Tribe Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division, Through its Member Secretary. 3) The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded. . RESPONDENTS. ... Shri G.V. Mohekar, Advocate for Petitioner. Shri K.G. Patil, Assistant Government Pleader, for respondent Nos. 1 and 3. Shri P.S. Patil, Advocate for respondent No. 2. WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 3592 OF 2009. Dattatraya Vijaykumar Nashettiwar, Age 20 years, Occu. Education, R/o Degloor, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded .. PETITIONER. VERSUS 2 1) The State of Maharashtra, Through Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai. 2) Scheduled Tribe Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division, Through its Member Secretary. 3) The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded. . RESPONDENTS. ... Shri G.V. Mohekar, Advocate for Petitioner. Shri V.D. Godbharle, Assistant Government Pleader, for respondent Nos. 1 and 3. Shri P.S. Patil, Advocate for respondent No. 2. CORAM : A.M. KHANWILKAR AND S.S. SHINDE, JJ. DATE : 3rd MARCH, 2010. PER COURT: (S.S. Shinde,J.) 1. Heard Learned Counsel appearing for the respective parties. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent of the learned counsel for the parties, the matter is taken up for final hearing at the stage of admission. These petitions takes exception to the decision dated 30-03-2009 passed by the 3 respondent No. 2- Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad, thereby confirming the order of the Respondent No. 3 i.e. Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded, dated 31-07-2008. 2. It is the case of the petitioners that they belongs ‘Mannerwarlu’ Scheduled Tribe intend to get benefits meant for Scheduled Tribe category in further education. Therefore, they applied to the respondent No. 3 for issuance of tribe certificate. It is further case of the petitioners that, in spite of number of documents submitted before the respondent No. 3 Committee, the respondent No. 3 declined to issue tribe certificate in favour of the petitioners. 3. The learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 2 Committee and the learned Assistant Government Pleader appearing for respondent Nos. 1 & 3 vehemently opposed the petition and submitted that, the authority as well as Scrutiny Committee properly appreciated the documents on record and then only the impugned orders are passed and therefore, this 4 Court may not interfere in Writ Jurisdiction. 4. We have heard counsel appearing for the parties at length, perused the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor has declined to issue tribe certificate in favour of the petitioners on the ground that, the satisfactory evidence is not brought on record in support of their claims. It is observed by the Sub Divisional Officer that “ Merely because one of the family member caste has been verified could not be itself the foundation for validation of the candidates claim. Each claim has to stand on his own legs.” 5. The petitioners carried the matter in appeal before the Scrutiny Committee who in-turn, rejected the appeal by following reasons given by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor. The order reads thus :- “ The appellant Kum. Nageshettiwar Saraswati Vijaykumar at Post Degloor, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded requested to the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor Dist. Nanded to issue her a Tribe certificate as belonging to “Manerwarlu” 5 Scheduled Tribe, but the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor Dist. Nanded refused to issue the same vide their order dated 31-07-2008 and therefore the Appellant filed an appeal before the Committee against the order of Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded vide application dated 30-08-2008. The Appellant submitted her detail explanation on 10-11-2008. The Scrutiny Committee deeply observed the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded and the documentary evidences submitted by the appellant along with the proposal and the Committee have come to the conclusion that, the Order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer,Degloor, Dist. Nanded is satisfactory and therefore the Committee is agreed with the decision taken by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor in the said case and Hence, the said appeal is rejected by the Committee.” In case of petitioner in another Writ Petition No. 3592 of 2009 also the appellate authority passed the similar order. 6. Having considered the rival 6 submissions, in our opinion, neither the approach of the Sub Divisional Officer nor that of the Scrutiny Committee can stand the test of the judicial Scrutiny. Indeed, the Sub Divisional Officer has noted that the documents submitted by the petitioners, however, did not appreciate the said documents. In fact the petitioners have produced caste validity certificate of one Mogalaji Iranna Shishetwar and also other documents including the validity certificate of Shri Vishal Suryakant Nagshettiwar. In fact, Shri Vishal Suryakant Nagsheetiwar has filed affidavit before the Sub Divisional Officer stating therein that he is cousin uncle of the petitioners. The father of the petitioners has also filed affidavit stating therein that, he belongs to ‘Mannerwarlu’ Scheduled Tribe. However, the father of the petitioners is illiterate, and therefore, there is no record to show that he belongs to ‘Mannerwarlu’ Scheduled Tribe. The impugned order passed by the respondent No. 3 also indicates that, the Circle Officer, Degloor has also filed his inquiry report recommending them to issue tribe certificate in their favour. 7 Therefore, in our considered opinion, the respondent No. 3 should have issued the tribe certificate of ‘Mannerwarlu’ Scheduled Tribe in favour of the petitioners. 7. In so far as Scrutiny Committee is concerned, it has merely agreed with the opinion of the Sub Divisional Officer without recording any finding of its own. The Scrutiny Committee has not even bothered to analyze the documents produced by the petitioners though it was dealing with the statutory appeal preferred by the petitioner. The approach of the Scrutiny Committee to say the least, is perverse. 8. In the above stated back ground, we quash and set aside the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor as well as respondent No.2-Committee and direct the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor to issue provisional tribe certificate belonging to ‘Manerwarlu-Scheduled Tribe’ in favour of the present petitioners within two weeks from today. It is needless to mention that, the said caste certificate will be 8 subject to validation by the respondent No.2- Committee. Rule is made absolute to the above extent. Writ Petitions are allowed and disposed of accordingly. . Rule is made absolute on the terms indicated above. [ S.S. SHINDE, J ] [ A.M. KHANWILKAR, J ] SDM* WP3591/040310