1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.4543 OF 2009 Vijaykumar S/o.Babasaheb Koli, Age- years, Occu-Student, R/o.Tambari Bibhag, Near Nutan School, Osmanabad, Dist.Osmanabad PETITIONER VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra, Through Principal Secretary, Social Justice and Welfare Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai. 2. Divisional Caste Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division, Aurangabad 3. The Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad Sub Division, Osmanabad, Dist : Osmanabad RESPONDENTS Mr.M.A.Thorbole, learned counsel for petitioner. Mr.V.H.Dighe, learned AGP for respondent no.1 and 3 Mr.R.P.Phatake, learned counsel for respondent no.2 (CORAM : P.V.HARDAS AND A.V.POTDAR, J.J.) DATE : 27/07/2009 ORAL JUDGMENT : (Per A.V.Potdar, J.) 1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent of the 2 parties, the writ petition is taken up for final hearing at the stage of admission itself. 2. By the present writ petition under Article 226 of The Constitution of India, the petitioner has challenged the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad dated 13/01/2009 by which the application submitted by the petitioner to issue caste certificate as he belongs to the caste of Mahadev Koli, Scheduled Tribe was rejected by the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad. This order was challenged by the petitioner by preferring appeal before the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division Aurangabad, who confirmed the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad vide their order dated 27th February 2009 by dismissing the appeal preferred by the petitioner. Hence the present writ petition. 3. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner followed by the arguments of learned counsel for respondent no.2 Shri.R.P.Phatke. With the assistance of learned counsel appearing for the petitioner as well as respondents, perused the documents produced alongwith the writ petition and the order passed by the Learned Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad as well as the Scrutiny Committee Aurangabad Division Aurangabad. The facts which gave rise to file the present writ petition can be summarized as – An application was moved by the petitioner before the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad for issuance of caste certificate. Alongwith the said application, he had 3 submitted in all 9 documents including the extract issued by Nutan Prathamik Vidya Mandir where the petitioner has taken primary education, the extract of the school leaving certificate from the secondary school where the petitioner has studied upto 10th and 12th standard, the certificate issued by the Talathi, Sajja Osmanabad about the caste of the petitioner, the caste certificate issued in the name of father of the petitioner as well as the first page of the service book of the father of the petitioner, the certificate issued by the Tahsildar about the caste of the grandfather of the present petitioner, the caste validity certificate issued to second cousin brother of the petitioner (2 in number), the entry in the death register showing the caste of great grandfather of the petitioner as Koli Mahadev and the communication given to the Tahsildar concern by the Circle Inspector in the name of the petitioner giving the caste of the present petitioner. Inspite of all these documents, the application given by the present petitioner for issuance of caste certificate was rejected by The Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad by holding that the caste of the applicant is to be considered on the basis of caste of his father, grandfather or paternal aunt and no such document is produced by the applicant. The documents produced by the applicant are not of the close blood relatives, but are the documents of the distant blood relatives of the applicant. Hence these documents can not be considered. The Scrutiny Committee have passed the order dated 27/02/2009 simply on the basis of conclusion drawn by the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad without any independent reasoning given to dismiss/reject the appeal. 4 4. After hearing the submissions advanced across the bar by learned counsel appearing for the petitioner as well as respondents and on perusal of the documents produced by the petitioner before the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad, which clearly demonstrates that the caste certificate was issued to the father of the applicant as well as to the grand father of the present applicant which are on record. In these certificates, the caste of the father as well as the grandfather of the petitioner was shown as “Hindu Koli Mahadev” and accordingly the caste of the father of the petitioner was recorded in his service book. The documents on record further shows that the caste of the great grandfather of the present petitioner was recorded in the death extract as Koli Mahadev. These are the close blood relatives of the petitioner and this evidence was not considered either by the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmabad while rejecting the application submitted by the present petitioner for issuance of caste certificate and these observations are blindly accepted by the Scrutiny Committee while dismissing the appeal preferred by the present petitioner. Thus the observations in the application decided by the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad as well as the members of the Scrutiny Committee Aurangabad Division Aurangabad prima facie it appears that the application as well as the appeal of the petitioner was rejected by non application of mind to the documents produced for the verification/observation of the learned Sub Divisional Officer. 5. In the premise, we set aside and quash the order passed by the 5 Sub Divisional Officer dated 13/01/2009 as well as the Scrutiny Committee dated 27/02/2009 and we direct the Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad to issue caste certificate to the petitioner as he belongs to Koli Mahadev. 6. We are hereby making it clear that even though we have given directions to The Sub Divisional Officer, Osmanabad to issue the caste certificate to the petitioner as he belongs to Koli Mahadev, Scheduled Tribe, still this issuance of the caste certificate to the petitioner is always subject to the verification of the caste by the Scrutiny Committee or the competent authority under the Law. 7. Rule thus made absolute as indicated above and the writ petition stands disposed of accordingly with no order as to costs. (A.V.POTDAR, J.) (P.V.HARDAS, J.) khs/JULY 2009/wp4543-09