1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 5499 OF 2008 Kantilal Baban Kamble .. Petitioner Versus 1. State of Maharashtra Through its Secretary, Tribal Development Dept. Mantralaya, Mumbai-32 2. Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Pune Division, Pune Through its Deputy Director and Member Secretary, 28, Queen's Garden, Pune 411 001 3. Sub Divisional Officer Panharpur Division, Pandharpur, Dist. Solapur .. Respondents Shri R.K. Mendadkar, for the petitioner, absent. Shri V.P.Malvankar, GP for the Respondents State CORAM: J. N. PATEL, & MRS. MRIDULA BHATKAR, JJ. DATED: 6th May, 2009 J U D G E M E N T (Per Mridula Bhatkar, J.) 2 1. Despite the matter being listed on bord for admission, neither the petitioner nor his Advocate is pesent today. Heard the learned AGP for the Respondent State. 2. The petitioner has filed this petition challenging the order dated 29.5.2007 passed by the Respondent No.2 - the Scheduled Tribes Certificate Scrutiny committee, Pune Division, ( Scrutiny Committee), invalidating the caste certificate (Mahadeo Koli- Scheduled Tribe (S.T.) of the petitioner. 3. Factual Matrix : According to the petitioner he belongs to Mahadeo Koli which is a Scheduled Tribe under the Presidential Notification of 1950 issued under Article 341(1) of the Constitution of India. Sub-divisional Magistrate, Pandharpur Division by his order dated 9.9.2004, has issued caste certificate of Mahadeo Koli in favour of the Petitioner. Thereafter the petitioner approached the Respondent no.2 committee seeking verification of his caste certificate as belonging to Mahadeo Koli- Scheduled Tribe, to get the job in public service from the reserved category meant for ST. The petitioner produced various documents in support 3 of his claim as Mahadeo Koli (ST). The Police inspector of the vigilance cell conducted home and school enquiry and recorded statement of the brother of the petitioner as regards information about anthropological and ethnological traits, rituals, customs, mode of marriage, festivals celebrated by them, etc. The Police Inspector of vigilance cell also examined school records in respect of the blood relatives. Vigilance cell found caste of some relatives of the petitioner as "koli". Report of the vigilance cell was submitted to the Committee 15.1.2007. The petitioner has also given information regarding his traits, characteristics, customs and traditions of his community at the time of personal hearing, however, the Committee, invalidated the caste certificate of the petitioner by its order dated 29.5.2007. The petitioner, being aggrieved by the said order, has preferred this petition. 4. Submissions : In the petition, it is contended that the documentary evidence produced by the petitioner was not properly appreciated by the scrutiny committee and has erred in observing that the the entries in the documents are recent i.e. after passing of first Presidential order, 1950 and the decision of 4 the committee is arbitrary, irrational and perverse. The petitioners prayed to quash and set aside the impugned order with direction to the Respondent No.2 committee to issue Caste validity Certificates in favour of the petitioners as belonging to Mahadeo Koli- Scheduled Tribe. 5. The Respondents have filed affidavit in reply denying the submissions and contentions of the petitioners. It was contended that the claim of the petitioner was rightly invalidated by the committee that the petitioner does not fall in Scheduled tribe, hence this petition be dismissed. 6. Consideration: The Scrutiny committee, in its order dated 13.6.2007 has considered all the documents placed on record by the petitioner. The documents disclosing the birth record, school leaving certificates of his uncles, aunt and other relatives are after First Presidential Notification, 1950 and hence, do not carry probative value. The information collected by the enquiry officer in respect of paternal relatives of the petitioner is as under: 5 Date of birth Name Fathers Name Caste Relation with the petitioner 29.8.1937 Shantinath Jagannath Dada Koli Koli Uncle 19.4.1940 Kalavati Jagannath Dada Koli Koli Aunt 28.11.1947 Rakhmabai Jagannath Dada Koli Koli Aunt 7. School record of Jagannath Dada Koli dated 14.12.1927 which is the oldest available record of the grand father of the petitioner discloses the caste as Marathi (Koli). The School record reveals caste of his two Uncles Krushna Jagannath and Dattatray Jagannath Koli respectively of the years 1951 and 1971. The information discloses that Surname koli was changed to Kamble subsequently by the grand father of the petitioner. Hence, there is no documentary evidence to support the caste claim of the petitioner. It is the duty of the petitioner to submit the concrete evidence in support of his claim. However, no document authentically proving the caste as Mahadeo Koli is produced. The, scrutiny committee verified the claim of the petitioner not only by relying on the documents submitted but also by applying the affinity test. However, the petitioner could not fulfill the requirement of the affinity test. The scrutiny committee has discussed in detail the certificates of the other relatives of the 6 petitioner whose caste was shown as Mahadeo Koli. However, they are not the blood relatives and, therefore, held that those certificates can not be considered as conclusive proof determining the tribe claim of the applicant and it is rightly held by the committee that the petitioner belongs to non tribal group and hence correctly invalidated the caste certificate of the petitioner. 8. In view of this circumstance mentioned above, the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee cannot be said to be illegal or incorrect. It need not be interfered with. This Court not being a Court of appeal is not expected to re-appreciate the evidence once again unless any perversity is shown. No such thing is brought to our notice. The view taken by the Scrutiny committee is reasonable and possible view based on the evidence on record. In the result, the petition stands dismissed with no order as to costs. (MRIDULA BHATKAR, J.) (J. N. PATEL, J.) jpc/-