1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.3969 OF 2009 Rajendra s/o Murlidhar Chavan, Age : 44 years, Occu. Service, presently working as Police Inspector, M.R.A. Marg Police Station, Mumbai ..PETITIONER VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra, through its Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai 2. The Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims, Nasik Division, Nasik 3. The Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims, Aurangabad ..RESPONDENTS Mr S.R. Barlinge, Advocate for the petitioner; Mr V.B. Ghatge, AGP for respondent no.1; Mr U.S. Malte, Advocate for for respondents no.2 & 3. CORAM : P.V. HARDAS AND A.V. POTDAR, JJ DATE : 31st August 2009 2 ORAL JUDGMENT [ PER P.V.HARDAS , J ] 1. Rule. Rule returnable forthwith. With the consent of learned Counsel for the parties this petition is heard finally at the stage of admission. 2. By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India the petitioner prays for issuance of a writ of certiorari for quashing and setting aside the impugned communications dated 31.1.2009, 20.7.2005 and 6.9.2005, issued by the Joint Commissioner, Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nasik and the other respondents. The petitioner also prays for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to return the original caste certificate of the petitioner and issue the caste validity certificate in favour of the petitioner. 3. Such of the facts as are necessary for the decision of this petition may briefly be stated thus :- A certificate came to be issued by the Executive Magistrate, Dhule on 15.10.1984 in respect of the tribe of the petitioner as "Thakur". On the strength of the aforesaid certificate the petitioner came to be selected for the post of a Police sub Inspector in 1988 and accordingly submitted his original caste 3 certificate and other supporting documents to the Principal, Police Training College, Nasik for onward transmission to the Scrutiny Committee for verification. It appears that the Scrutiny Committee by its order dated 12.12.1991 invalidated the tribe claim of the petitioner as belonging to "Thakur" - Scheduled Tribe. As per the provisions of the law existing then, the petitioner filed an appeal and accordingly the appeal came to be allowed by order dated 30.1.1993 and the appellate authority directed the Scrutiny Committee to issue validity certificate in favour of the petitioner. Subsequent thereto, it appears that an order came to be passed by the State Government staying the order of the appellate authority by its communication dated 11.5.1993 on the specious plea that review of the aforesaid decisions was necessitated. Accordingly, Writ Petition No.4241 of 1999 came to be filed at the principal seat of this Court at Bombay and this Court by its order dated 4.5.2000 quashed the communication dated 11.5.1993 by which the stay came to be granted to the appellate authority order dated 30.1.1993. It appears subsequently that certain communications came to be addressed to the petitioner as a reply to the application submitted by the petitioner for issuance of a validity certificate, that the validity certificate could not be issued as the case of the petitioner was under consideration for filing a review application along with the case of others. Despite the order of the appellate 4 authority and and despite the order of this Court rendered in Writ Petition No.4241 of 1999, validity certificate has not been issued to the petitioner. 4. On notice of this petition being issued to the respondents, respondents have filed an affidavit in reply. In the affidavit in reply it is stated that only one review application has been filed and the authorities intend to await the orders to be passed in the said review application and thereafter other review applications would be filed and, therefore, it is stated that the petitioner is not entitled to be issued with the validity certificate. 5. According to us, such a communication on behalf of the respondents is extremely unreasonable. The appellate authority had quashed and set aside the order of the Scrutiny Committee invalidating the tribe claim of the petitioner. Subsequently, this Court in Writ Petition No.4241 of 1999 had quashed the order passed by the State Government granting stay to the order of the appellate authority. As on today the order of the appellate authority holds the field. There are no other orders either challenging the order by which the order of the appellate authority has either been stayed or has been quashed and set aside by a Court of competent jurisdiction. In such circumstances, the respondents cannot refuse to issue the 5 validity certificate to the petitioner on the ground that they intend to file review. In any event, the validity certificate issued to the petitioner would always be subject to such orders as are passed by the Court ion review, if the review application is entertained. 6. In the light of that, therefore, this petition succeeds. The impugned communications insofar as they relate to the petitioner and the communication of the respondents refusing to issue validity certificate to the petitioner are quashed and set aside and the respondents are directed to forthwith issue the validity certificate to the petitioner as belonging to "Thakur" - Scheduled Tribe and return the other original documents as per law. 7. Rule is thus made absolute on the above terms with no order as to costs. ( A.V.POTDAR ) ( P.V.HARDAS ) JUDGE JUDGE amj/wp3969.09 6