1 lgc IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.125 OF 2009 WITH CIVIL APPLICATION NO.2003 OF 2009 Tanvi Dinesh Patel : Petitioner. Versus State of Maharashtra & ors. : Respondents. Mr.R K Mendadkar for the Petitioner Mr P P Kakade, AGP, for the Respondent Nos.1 to 3. CORAM : S B MHASE & R M SAVANT, JJ. DATE : 14th August 2009 P.C. 1. Today the Civil Application No.2003 of 2009 has been placed for hearing. By the above Application the Applicant is seeking directions that he should be considered for admission to the Medical Course. The Applicant states that he belongs to “Dhodia”, Scheduled Tribe and accordingly she is possessed of the caste certificate issued by the Respondent No.3- Sub Divisional Officer, Mumbai Suburban District. However, when it was placed before the Scrutiny Committee for validation, the Scrutiny Committee has taken a view that the Petitioner is a migrant, and therefore it refused to validate the caste certificate of the Petitioner. 2 2. Having found that the case of the Petitioner is covered by the Apex Court’s Judgment in the matter of Sudhakar Vithal Kumbhare v/s. State of Maharashtra and ors. Reported in (2004) 9 SCC 481, with consent of the parties we have taken a decision to dispose of the above Writ Petition and the Civil Application finally. 3. The facts in this case are that the Petitioner claims that she belongs to Dhodia, Scheduled Tribe. She is a resident of Barsol Dist.Valsad which is a part of the Gujarat State. Earlier Barsol Dist.Valsad was a part of old Bombay State and as a result of the States reorganization, Barsol has been included in Gujarat State. Dhodia caste is admittedly declared in both the States as Scheduled Tribe and the Presidential Order of 1950 was applicable to the Old Bombay because State of Gujarat and State of Maharashtra have come into existence on 1st May 1960. Therefore, the case of the Petitioner is squarely covered by the above referred judgment of the Apex Court. In spite of the fact that the said judgment was brought to the notice of the Scrutiny Committee, the Scrutiny Committee refused to consider it. On the basis of the said judgment, the Scrutiny Committee should have proceeded for consideration of the validation of caste certificate of the Petitioner and the Scrutiny Committee could not have refused to enquiry into the caste 3 claim of the Petitioner on the ground that the Petitioner is a migrant from other State. The cases falling under the State Reorganization Act are required to be dealt with and stand on a different footing than the cases where migrants are concerned from other States where provisions of State Reorganization Act are not applicable and this distinction has to be borne in mind by the Scrutiny Committee. What we find that if social claim of the Petitioner is validated, the Petitioner is entitled to get admission in State of Maharashtra. It appears that in Scheduled Tribes Merit List in the State of Maharashtra the Petitioner is at Sr. No.36 while the seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the State of Maharashtra are 108, and therefore, there is a fair chance of the Petitioner getting admission. Under these circumstances, we dispose of the above Petition by issuing following directions :- (A) The order passed by the Scrutiny Committee dated 16/09/2008 is hereby set aside and the matter is remitted back to the Scrutiny Committee for the purpose of disposal on merits. (B) The Scrutiny Committee shall carry out an enquiry in respect of the validation claim of the Petitioner as a Dhodia, Scheduled Tribe within a period of twelve weeks from today. The Scrutiny Committee 4 shall also carry out Vigilance Cell Report and if it is adverse, a copy of the same shall be served upon the Petitioner and an opportunity of hearing should be given to the Petitioner to represent against the said Report. (C) In any circumstance, the Scrutiny Committee shall dispose of the matter within the aforesaid period of twelve weeks. (D) Since we find that the admission process is going on and first round is complete and the Petitioner stands at Sr.No.36 in merit as against 108 reserved seats in the Scheduled Tribes List issued in the State of Maharashtra, the case of the Petitioner on the basis of the caste certificate which she possesses shall be considered by the Respondent Nos.4 and 5 for admission. However, the said admission will be subject to final decision of the Scrutiny Committee. In case the decision of the Scrutiny Committee goes against the Petitioner, the Petitioner will have to vacate the seat. (E) The concerned authorities are directed to consider the admission of the Petitioner in the reserved category seat of the Scheduled Tribe as Dhodia. 5 (F) The above Petition is disposed by making the Rule absolute in the aforesaid terms. Sd/- sd/- [R.M.SAVANT, J] [S.B.MHASE, J]