1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.4997 OF 2009 Rahul S/o.Shankarrao Pendkulwar Age-13 years (Minor) Through Natural Guardian i.e. father Shankarrao Malanna Pendkulwar, Age-48 years, Occu-Agril. R/o.Degloor, Tq.Degloor, Dist. Nanded PETITIONER VERSUS 1. Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded 2. Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Verification and Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Through its Member Secretary RESPONDENTS Mr.S.S.Phatale, learned counsel for petitioner. Mr.V.H.Dighe, learned AGP for respondent no.1 Mr.U.S.Malte, learned counsel for respondent no.2 (CORAM : P.V.HARDAS AND A.V.POTDAR, J.J.) DATE : 31/07/2009 ORAL JUDGMENT : (Per A.V.Potdar, J.) 1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent of the parties, writ petition is taken up for final hearing at the stage of admission. 2 2. By the present writ petition under Article 226 of The Constitution of India, the petitioner has challenged the judgment and order passed by The Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad, dated 28/04/2009 in appeal no.185/2009, which is preferred against the order dated 09/03/2009 passed by The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor by which the Sub Divisional Officer had rejected the application submitted by the petitioner for issuance of caste certificate dated 30/09/2008. 3. Heard respective learned counsels for petitioner and respondents. With their assistance, perused the record and proceeding as well as the documents produced by the petitioner before the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor. Also perused the order passed by The Sub Divisional officer, Degloor as well as the order passed by the members of the Scrutiny Committee. 4. It appears that on 30/09/2008, the petitioner has filed an application before The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor through his natural guardian father for issuance of caste certificate as petitioner claimed that he belongs to Manerwarlu Scheduled Tribe. Alongwith this application, the petitioner has produced various documents including the school leaving certificate, caste certificate issued in favour of father of the petitioner and also the affidavit of the father of the petitioner. Inspite of this, the application filed by the petitioner was rejected by The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor by observing that 3 the documents produced by petitioner are not sufficient as there is some interpollution in the register maintained by the school to issue school leaving certificate in favour of the father of the petitioner. Being aggrieved by the said order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, an appeal was filed before the Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad which was numbered as 185/2009 and which came to be dismissed vide order dated 28/04/2009 wherein it is observed that the record produced by the appellant petitioner about the entries of their caste of the real brother, father was of recent origin, hence can not be considered as a collusive proof to determine the caste of the petitioner which is the impugned order under this writ petition. 5. With the assistance of the respective counsels appearing for the petitioner as well as the respondents, we perused the order impugned under this writ petition as well as the order passed by the Learned Sub Divisional Officer. It appears from the documents produced before the Learned Sub Divisional Officer that the petitioner have produced the caste certificate issued in the name of his father wherein the caste of the father of the petitioner was recorded as Manerwarlu Scheduled Tribe. It is but natural that the son is entitled for the caste of his father. This caste certificate was issued by the competent authority i.e. Taluka Executive Magistrate, Degloor. Considering this documentary evidence on record, we are of the opinion that there is an apparent error on the part of Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor in appreciation of the documents tendered alongwith 4 the application by the petitioner and the same error was also committed by the members of The Scrutiny Committee. Hence the order passed by both the authorities below i.e. the members of The Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad as well as the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, impugned under this writ petition ought to be quashed and set aside and accordingly we quash and set aside the impugned orders. We direct Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor to issue certificate to the petitioner as he belongs to Manerwarlu Scheduled Tribe forthwith. 6. Needless to say that the caste certificate would be subject to verification by the competent Scrutiny Committee. 7. Rule is thus made absolute on the above terms with no order as to costs. (A.V.POTDAR, J.) (P.V.HARDAS, J.) khs/JULY 2009/wp4997-09