1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.3415 OF 2001 Shri Maruti Nagappa jamadar .... Petitioner. V/s State of Maharashtra & Ors. .... Respondents. ----- Mr. R.K. Mendadkar for the Petitioner. Mr. C.R. Sonawane, AGP for Respondent Nos. 1, 2 & 4. Mr. A.M. Vernekar for Respondent No.3. ----- CORAM : D.K. DESHMUKH & V.M. KANADE, JJ. DATE : 29 th January, 2008. P.C.: 1. By this Petition, the Petitioner challenges the order passed by the Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims, Pune holding that the Caste Certificate issued in favour of the Petitioner that he belongs to the Mahadeo Koli Scheduled Tribe is not valid. The Committee has given elaborate reasons why it is so holding. It has relied on the entries in the school record of the Petitioner. It appears that before the Scrutiny Committee the Petitioner has relied on the validity certificate issued in favour of his son. The Scrutiny Committee has issued a Certificate, certifying that the son of the Petitioner by name Prakash belongs to 2 Mahadeo Koli Scheduled Tribe. The Scrutiny Committee has brushed aside that Certificate by saying that, that Certificate was issued on the basis of the validity certificate issued in favour of one Bhimashankar Tukaram Jamdar who is cousin of the Petitioner and that Bhimashankar Tukaram Jamdar got the validity certificate before the decision of the Supreme Court in Kum. Madhuri Patil V/s. Additional Commissioner, Tribal Development & Others (AIR 1995 SC, page 94). The Scrutiny Committee has observed that the validity certificate granted in favour of the Petitioner’s son Prakash, is also liable to be recalled. But the fact remains that, that certificate has, to this date, not been recalled and son of the Petitioner holds the validity certificate, certifying that he belongs to the Mahadeo Koli Scheduled Tribe and because of that an anomalous situation arises and it is that the son of the Petitioner belongs to Mahadeo Koli Scheduled Tribe and the Petitioner does not. 2. In our opinion, therefore, till the Scrutiny Committee successfully recalls the validity certificate granted in favour of the Petitioner’s son, it could not have denied that validity certificate to the Petitioner. Petition, therefore, deserves to be allowed. The order of the Scrutiny Committee, impugned in the Petition, is set aside. It is held that the Petitioner belongs to the Mahadeo Koli Scheduled Tribe, only because his son Prakash has been held to be belonging to the Mahadeo Koli Scheduled Tribe. But we make it clear that the Scrutiny Committee and the Government would be at liberty 3 to take steps if it is permissible under the law for them to do so to recall the validity certificate issued in favour of the Petitioner’s son Prakash as also the validity certificate issued to Bhimashankar Tukaram Jamdar on the basis of whose certificate, Prakash was granted the validity certificate. In case, the law permits the respondents to do so, they may do it in accordance with law by following the law and the principles of natural justice. In case, the respondents successfully withdraw the validity certificate granted in favour of Prakash, they would also be entitled to withdraw the validity certificate granted in favour of the Petitioner by this Court by this Order, if they are entitled to do so in accordance with law. Rule is made absolute accordingly with no order as to costs. (D.K. DESHMUKH, J.) (V.M. KANADE, J.) 4