1 FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET No. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY APPELLATE SIDE, BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 3422 OF 2006 Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders or directions and the Registrar's orders. Court's or Judge's orders Coram: Smt. Nishita Mhatre, & Shri M. T. Joshi, JJ. Date : 12th August, 2011 Shri A.S. Golegaonkar Adv. for the petitioner. Shri V.B. Ghatge, A.G.P. for Respondents 1 to 4. -------- 1. This petition has been filed by a person who claims that he belongs to the Scheduled Tribe, namely, Thakur. He had produced his tribe certificate before the Scrutiny Committee for being validated. The Scrutiny Committee has rejected his claim on the ground that the certificate produced by him was fake. It has directed that the petitioner should be prosecuted for producing a fake certificate. 2 2. According to the learned Advocate for the petitioner, the certificate produced by the petitioner was not fake. It is the vigilance cell report which made the committee believe that the certificate was fabricated. It appears from the record that the vigilance cell had recorded the number from the register maintained for issuance of certificates to the scheduled castes rather than ascertaining the number in the register for the scheduled tribes. Because of this variance, there was a wrong entry made by the Tahsildar due to which apparently, the scrutiny committee was misled into believing that the certificate was fabricated. 3. In our opinion, therefore, this petition deserves to be allowed, by setting aside the decision of the scrutiny committee. 4. Accordingly, the petition is allowed. The decision of the scrutiny committee is set aside. The 3 petitioner shall appear before the committee on 5.9.2011. The scrutiny committee shall decide the tribe claim of the petitioner after obtaining the vigilance cell report afresh and on considering the affinity of the petitioner for the Thakur Scheduled tribe. This exercise be completed within six months from today. Till then, the petitioner's employer shall not take any adverse action against the petitioner for the non production of the caste validity certificate. (M.T. JOSHI, J.) (SMT. NISHITA MHATRE, J.) pnd/wp3422.06