1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.264 OF 2010 Amit Suresh Suryawanshi .... Petitioner V/s. The State of Maharashtra through its Secretary, Tribal Development Department and Ors. ..... Respondents Mr.R.K.Mendadkar, for the petitioner. Smt.S.S.Bhende, AGP, for the respondent – State. CORAM :P.B.MAJMUDAR & R.G.KETKAR, JJ. DATE : 19th MARCH, 2010 P.C. 1. The petitioner approached respondent No.3 for grant of caste certificate as belonging to Thakar, Scheduled Tribe, as according to the petitioner his caste is Thakar. Respondent No.3 after holding appropriate inquiry and after considering the material on record, came to the conclusion that the claim of the petitioner that he belongs to Thakkar is found to be incorrect. After primary scrutiny, it was found that father and grand father of the petitioner, were belonging to Hindu Maratha and they were never treated as scheduled tribe. It was found that the petitioner was not in a position to speak even Thakari dialect as he was not knowing that language. It was also found that as per the evidence, 2 prior to 1950, the father of the petitioner was belonging to Maratha community. Respondent No.3 also found that no blood relatives of the petitioner at any point of time were residing at hilly area, though the learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that as a matter of fact, it may not be necessary that a person claiming to be scheduled tribe, should be resided at hilly area. Respondent No.3 also found that surname of the petitioner was Suryawanshi. After considering the total evidence on record, it was found that the claim of the petitioner is not acceptable. 2. The petitioner carried out the said order before the appellate authority i.e. Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Pune Division, Pune, and the same has also held that the claim of the petitioner is not at all justified. 3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that appellate authority has considered various other aspects, which were not required to be considered, as the only point raised in the appeal is required to be considered, for which he relied upon the powers of the appellate authority. It is required to be noted that the appellate authority has found in Para No. 3 of the order that the documentary evidence produced by the petitioner has been taken into account as well as report of the vigilance cell has been taken into account. In para No.5, the appellate authority observed as under : - 3 “Applicant has submitted no any evidence as to whether or not as per Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Order (Amendment) Act, 1956 residence of applicant or his forefather was in the scheduled area on 6th September, 1950. On the contrary, from the documents submitted as above by the applicant, it is seen that forefathers of the applicant were residing outside scheduled area prescribed for Thakar, scheduled tribe”. 4. It was also found that the cousin uncle of the petitioner was Maratha, as per the extract of the birth and death certificate and he died on 30-12-1943. Another uncle of the petitioner was born on 11-03-1947 was also Maratha as per the birth extract. It was also found that petitioner’s grand fathers’ caste is recorded as Hindu Maratha as back as on 01-06-1922 and death and birth abstracts in which caste is recorded as Maratha in the year 1943 and 1947. So far as other relatives of the petitioner are concerned, the caste of the grand father of the petitioner was recorded in olden days. 5. In our view, it cannot be said that either respondent No.3 and appellate authority have made any mistake in rejecting the claim of the petitioner for treating him as scheduled tribe. It is clear that the petitioner wants to take advantage of scheduled tribe for getting various benefits available to the scheduled tribe, even though he is not belonging to the said tribe as per the voluminous documentary evidence on record. 4 We therefore, do not find any merit in the writ petition and the same is dismissed with no order as to costs. ( R.G.KETKAR, J. ) ( P.B.MAJMUDAR, J.)