THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED AND THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU Thursday the 31st day of July 2008 Writ Petition No.11054 of 2008 Between: Hemant Kumar W.Nimje, S/o Wasudeo Jivataji Nimje, Aged about 36 years, Assistant Foreman O/o Controllerate of Quality Assurances (systems) Ministry of Defence, DGQA complex, Manovikas Nagar Post Office, Secunderabad. Petitioner And: 1. The Director General Quality Assurances (rep UOI), Department of Defence Protection, Ministry of defence (DGQA), Government of India, Defence HQ Post Office, New Delhi – 110 011. 2. The Director, Directorate of Quality Assurance, (Eloctronics), Ministry of Defence (DGQA), Government of India, Defence HQ Post Office, New Delhi – 110 011. 3. The Controller, Collectorate of Quality Assurances, (Systems), Ministry of Defence DGQA complex, Manovikas Nagar Post Office, Secunderabad. 4. The Dy.Director (Research) & Member Secretary, S.I.Caste Scrutiny Committee, Adivasi Vikas Bhavan, II Floor, Giripet, Nagapur, Maharashtra. … Respondents For the reasons stated in the accompanying aﬃdavit, it is hereby prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue writ, order or direction, more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Certiorari a. To call for the records relating to and connected with the order dated 22.4.2008 in Original Application Number 693 of 2005 on the ﬁle of the learned Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad Bench and set aside the same; b. Declare the action of the respondents in asking the petitioner to subject himself before the 4th respondent as arbitrary, illegal, unjust and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. and pass such other and further order or orders as this Hon’ble Court in the interests of justice deem ﬁt and appropriate in the circumstances of the case. Counsel for the petitioner : Sri siva Counsel for the Respondent Nos.1 to 3 : Sri A.Rajasekhar Reddy (SC for Central Government) The Court made the following: THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED AND THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU Writ Petition No.11054 of 2008 ORDER: (per the Hon’ble Sri Justice Ghulam Mohammed) This writ petition is ﬁled seeking a Writ of Certiorari calling for records relating to the order dated 22.04.2008 passed in O.A.No.693 of 2005 on the ﬁle of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad Bench, and to declare the action of the respondents in asking the petitioner to appear before the 4th respondent. Petitioner is the applicant in the said O.A. He ﬁled the O.A., questioning the order dated 14.03.2005 passed by the 1st respondent whereby he was required to execute an aﬃdavit before the caste veriﬁcation committee to the eﬀect that he is the blood relation of one D.K. Nimje. Brief facts are that the petitioner was appointed in the respondent-organization on 25.05.1992 as chargeman Grade II under Scheduled Tribe quota as he belongs to Halba caste of Maharashtra State. Subsequently in the year 1997, he was transferred to Secunderabad. While so, pursuant to a reference made by the 3rd respondent, the 4th respondent, by order dated 08.09.2005, directed the petitioner to appear before the committee on 19.09.2005 for veriﬁcation of the caste certiﬁcate. However, petitioner submitted representations dated 06.08.2003, 28.07.2004 and 26.08.2004 to the 2nd respondent stating that veriﬁcation of his caste certiﬁcate is unwarranted when once the caste of one of his family members i.e. his cousin is proved in an enquiry, thus, there is no need to prove the caste status of every family member. Meanwhile, the 1st respondent, by letter dated 14.03.2005, informed the 3rd respondent that the caste certiﬁcate of the petitioner has been found genuine by the establishment and a detailed veriﬁcation of his caste has already been done by the Divisional Commissioner in his cousin’s case, however, an aﬃdavit of the petitioner to the eﬀect that he has blood relation with D.K. Nimje, may be sought to be produced before the veriﬁcation committee. The respondents ﬁled a counter stating that petitioner’s caste certiﬁcate was not veriﬁed earlier, thus it necessitated them to verify the same. They further contended that though the Tahsildar, Nagpur, clariﬁed the caste certiﬁcate issued to the petitioner, the said certiﬁcate is required to be veriﬁed by the Scheduled Tribe caste certiﬁcates scrutiny committee, Nagpur. They further contended that only when the committee validates the certiﬁcate, the petitioner is entitled to get the facilities of scheduled tribe, and therefore, the petitioner shall appear before the scrutiny committee for verification. Considering the rival contentions, the Tribunal dismissed the O.A., observing that since the petitioner was asked to appear before the Scrutiny Committee, he shall appear before the same and if he has any grievance, he has to raise the same before the appropriate forum. The Tribunal further observed that the petitioner cannot question the internal communication, dated 14.03.2005, between the 1st and 3rd respondents with regard to seeking aﬃdavit from the petitioner to the eﬀect that he is the blood relative of one D.K. Nimje. Learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Siva, vehemently contended that the caste certiﬁcate of the petitioner was veriﬁed at the time of his appointment and subsequently also at the time of his promotion thrice, and therefore, there is no need to verify the genuineness of the caste certiﬁcate of the petitioner by the scrutiny committee. In this context, the learned counsel has drawn our attention to the judgment of the High Court of Nagpur, in W.P.No.5097 of 2008. On the other hand, the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the Central Government contended that pursuant to the directions issued by the High Court of Delhi in C.W.P.No.5976 of 2003, veriﬁcation of caste certiﬁcate is being done. He further contended that as the authorities have never veriﬁed the certiﬁcate of the petitioner, it necessitated them to verify the same by referring to the committee. We have considered the submissions of both the counsel and perused the material on record. Admittedly, petitioner secured employment in the respondent-organization under Scheduled Tribe quota, on the strength of the S.T. (Halba) caste certiﬁcate. The respondents have undertaken the task of verifying the caste certiﬁcates of the persons who have secured employment in Government of India and Government of NCT of Delhi on the strength of the Scheduled Tribe Caste Certiﬁcates, pursuant to a direction of the High Court of Delhi in Civil Writ Petition No.5976 of 2003. In this context, the 3rd respondent, by letter dated 12.12.2002, sought clariﬁcation from the Tahsildar, Nagpur, who issued ST (Halba) caste certiﬁcate to the petitioner. Accordingly, the Tahsildar, Nagpur, clariﬁed issuance of caste certiﬁcate, however, stated that it is required to be veriﬁed by the Scheduled Tribe Caste Certiﬁcate Scrutiny Committee. Pursuant to the same, the Scrutiny Committee directed the petitioner to appear before it for veriﬁcation. It is the contention of the petitioner that since the Tahsildar Nagpur, conﬁrmed the caste certiﬁcate issued to him, there is no necessity for veriﬁcation. However, a perusal of the letter of the Tahsildar, Nagpur, dated 18.02.2003, shows that he has only clariﬁed the issuance of the caste certiﬁcate, and further asked the authorities to send the caste certiﬁcate to the 4th respondent for certifying the validity of it. Therefore, it is clear that the petitioner is entitled to get beneﬁts under the Scheduled Tribe quota, only if his caste certiﬁcate is validated by the 4th respondent. The learned counsel for the petitioner further contended that since the authorities have veriﬁed his caste certiﬁcate at the time of his appointment and also subsequently when he was promoted thrice, there is no necessity to verify the same again. He has also drawn our attention to the corrigendum No.STC- 142000/C.N.43/D-10 dated 28.05.2001 issued by the Government of Maharashtra and contended that as per the said corrigendum, promotion shall not be given unless the caste certiﬁcate is veriﬁed. Therefore, he contended that as he was promoted thrice, it is clear that he was promoted duly verifying his caste certiﬁcate. In order to substantiate his contention, the learned counsel relied upon the judgment of the Nagpur High Court in W.P.No.5097 of 2003. However, it is the speciﬁc case of the respondents that the caste certiﬁcate of the petitioner was never veriﬁed and therefore, they sought to verify the same. The petitioner has not placed any record to show that authorities have veriﬁed his caste certiﬁcate at any point of time. Even in the judgment relied on by the learned counsel for the petitioner, the caste certiﬁcate of the petitioner therein was veriﬁed by the scrutiny committee, therefore, it was held that there is no necessity for re-veriﬁcation. But in the instant case, the caste certiﬁcate of the petitioner is required to be veriﬁed by the committee for the ﬁrst time. If the caste certiﬁcate of the petitioner is genuine, there should be no hesitation on his part to appear before the scrutiny committee and getting its veriﬁcation done. Therefore, the Tribunal below has categorically observed that the petitioner has to appear before the committee to establish his claim and if he has any grievance, he has to raise the same before the appropriate forum. The petitioner also relied upon the correspondence between the 1st and 3rd respondents, dated 14.03.2005, and contended that since the respondents found that the caste certiﬁcate of the petitioner is genuine, the respondents are not justiﬁed in again asking him to produce an aﬃdavit that he is blood relation of D.K. Nimje, his cousin, before the caste veriﬁcation committee. Evidently, it is an internal communication and no copy of the same was marked to the petitioner. Further, the petitioner has not even produced any document to show that pursuant to the said internal communication he was directed to produce an affidavit. Therefore, the petitioner cannot question the said internal communication. Considering all the aspects, the Tribunal below rightly dismissed the O.A. When the authorities have entertained a doubt with regard to the caste of the petitioner, they are empowered to verify the same and the petitioner is not barred from appearing before the committee to prove his status. In these circumstances, we do not find any illegality in the order of the Tribunal below. The Writ petition is, therefore, dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. ___________________________ (Justice Ghulam Mohammed) _________________ (Justice C.V.Ramulu) 31st July 2008 Sh