1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD. WRIT PETITION NO. 1516 OF 2010 Tanaji S/o Marotirao Divatiwad, Age 23 years, Occu. Education, R/o At Post. Bhatapur, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded. .. PETITIONER. VERSUS 1) The State of Maharashtra, Through it’s Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai-32. 2) The Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad, through its Dy. Director (R), Aurangabad . 3) The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded. RESPONDENTS. ... Shri P.V. Jadhavar, Advocate for Petitioner. Shri V.H. Dighe, Assistant Government Pleader, for respondent Nos. 1 & 3. Shri R.P. Phatake, Advocate for respondent No. 2. CORAM : A.M. KHANWILKAR AND S.S. SHINDE, JJ. DATE : 25th FEBRUARY 2010. PER COURT: (S.S. Shinde,J.) 2 1. Heard Learned Counsel appearing for the respective parties. Rule, returnable forthwith. With the consent of the parties, heard finally at the stage of admission. This Writ Petition takes exception to the decision dated 27-04-2009 passed by the respondent No. 2-Committee, thereby confirming the order dated 05-02-2009 passed by the Respondent No. 3 the competent authority. 2. It is the case of the petitioner that he belong to ‘Koli Mahadeo-Scheduled Tribe’ which is notified and recognised as Scheduled Tribe. He applied for issuance of ‘Koli Mahadeo-Scheduled Tribe’ to respondent No. 3. However, respondent No. 3 rejected application filed by the petitioner. 3. The learned counsel appearing for the respondent No.2-Committee has vehemently opposed the petition and submitted that, the impugned decision is founded on sound reasons and does not 3 call for interference in Writ jurisdiction. We have heard the learned counsel appearing for the respective parties and perused the impugned order of the competent authority as well as decision of the respondent No. 2- Committee and also documents placed on record. The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, rejected the application of the petitioner on the ground that, the evidence produced by the petitioner is not sufficient to issue Tribe Certificate in favour of the petitioner. It is observed 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.” It is also observed by the Sub Divisional Officer that, the report of Tahasildar, Degloor shows that the census register of 1951, caste of the relatives of the petitioners is mentioned as “Tengole”. 4. The petitioner carried the matter in appeal before the Scrutiny Committee who in-turn rejected the appeal by following reasons recorded 4 by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor. The said order is reads as thus :- “ The Appellant Shri Ditiwad Tanaji Marotirao at Post Bhaktpur, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded requested to the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded to issue her a Tribe Certificate as belonging to “Koli Mahadeo” Scheduled Tribe but the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded refused to issue the same vide their order dated 05-02-2009 and therefore the Appellant filed an appeal before the Committee against the order of Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded vide application dated 20-03-2009. The Scrutiny Committee deeply observed the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded and the documentary evidence 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.” 5 5. Having considered the rival 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 candidate has submitted the fathers school leaving certificate, caste certificate and affidavit and also caste validity of blood relative of Shri Markate Narsing Sheshrao. However, has not appreciated the said documents. The approach of the competent authority in rejecting the application of the petitioners for issuance of ‘‘Koli Mahadeo- Scheduled Tribe’ is wholly unsustainable, in view of the fact that, the very competent authority has issued Tribe Certificate in favour of the father of the petitioners. 6. In so far as the 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 petitioner, though it was dealing 6 with the statutory appeal preferred by the petitioner. The approach of the Scrutiny Committee to say the least, is perverse. 7. 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 ‘Koli Mahadeo-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 subject to validation by the respondent No.2- Committee. Rule is made absolute to the above extent. Writ Petitions is allowed and disposed of accordingly. [ S.S. SHINDE, J ] [ A.M. KHANWILKAR, J ] SDM* WP1516.10