1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH : NAGPUR. WRIT PETITION NO.5307/2010 (Pragati R. Thakur .vs. The Scheduled Tribes Caste Scrutiny Committee, Nagpur and another ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders or directions Court's or Judge's orders. and Registrar's orders CORAM : B.P.DHARMADHIKARI & P.D. KODE, JJ. DATED : JUNE 23, 2011 Heard Advocate Shri R.S. Parsodkar for the petitioner and Advocate Shri P.B. Patil for respondent no.1. None appears for respondent no.2 though it is served with notice. This Court has already protected services of the petitioner on 28.10.2010. Caste claim of the petitioner as belonging to Thakur Scheduled Tribe has been invalidated on 30.9.2010 only on the ground that certificate submitted for scrutiny was not issued by the competent authority. According to respondent no.1, petitioner is native of Jalgaon district in State of Maharashtra and, therefore, she ought to have obtained caste certificate from the Executive Magistrate at that place and then that certificate could have been submitted for verification. Advocate Shri Patil for respondent no.1 is pointing out the Government Resolution dated 23.4.1987 relied upon by the Scrutiny Committee for the said purpose. 2 According to Advocate Shri Patil, father of the petitioner migrated to Nagpur in 1962 and the petitioner and other children are born at Nagpur. In view of this position, after giving necessary documents a caste certificate came to be issued to her by the Executive Magistrate, Nagpur City on 18.6.1992. After obtaining certificate and as required by law, that certificate was submitted for verification. He also tries to distinguish the judgment of this Court dated 22.3.2011 in Writ Petition No. 2357/2010 by pointing out that in that matter the certificate holder had not produced the caste certificate of his father and hence the particular view has been taken. He has invited attention to the Government Resolution dated 13.3.1985 issued by the State Government to urge that as per instruction no. 13 contained therein, in case of migrant the form of caste certificate as stipulated therein can be used by ignoring para no.3 and using paras 1 and 2. After hearing respective counsel, we find that father of the petitioner is basically from Jalgaon district and he claims to have migrated to Nagpur in 1962. The Government Resolution dated 23.4.1987 specifically states that candidate like petitioner has to obtain caste certificate from competent authority of a place which is native place of his/her father. It is, therefore, obvious that petitioner ought to have obtained a basic certificate dated 18.6.1992 from competent authority at Jalgaon. The rejection of her claim because certificate is obtained from Nagpur, therefore, cannot be said to be arbitrary or without jurisdiction. The distinguishing 3 feature attempted to be demonstrated by Advocate Shri Parsodkar is not relevant in this fact. However, the petitioner has also pointed out that her real uncle namely Rajendra Jangalrao Thakur has been given validity after due scrutiny by Scrutiny Committee at Nasik which has jurisdiction over Jalgaon district. In this fact and as services of the petitioner are already protected, we grant petitioner time of three months to apply to competent authority in Jalgaon district to obtain caste certificate and to submit it for verification to the competent authority. The services of the petitioner shall remain protected during said period of three months. If the petitioner is aggrieved by any action or omission thereafter on the part of the concerned Scrutiny Committee, liberty to the petitioner to raise all his contentions before the competent forum thereafter. With this direction, petition is disposed of. No costs. JUDGE JUDGE halwai