FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 2485 OF 2011 “Pushpabai Jagannath Dahitule Vs. The State of Maharashtra and others” Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram appearances, Court's Orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. 1 Mr. D.R. Irale Patil, Advocate for the petitioner Mrs. A.V. Gondhalekar, AGP for respondents. CORAM :- D.B. BHOSALE & S.B. DESHMUKH, JJ. DATE :- 13TH JUNE, 2011. PER COURT :- 1] Heard learned counsel for the parties 2] In this writ petition, the petitioner is seeking the following reliefs :- “(B) The Honourable Court may be pleased to pass necessary order and quash and set aside impugned letter No. 2011/GPE/Outward no. P/KV 1037 dated 17.2.2011 issued by Additional Collector, Aurangabad and the learned Collector may be directed to accept the proposal as it is, submitted by the petitioner afresh and forward to the caste scrutiny committee for verification of caste certificate in time scheduled framed by this Honourable court. (C)Pending hearing and final disposal of this writ petition, the Honourable court may be plaeased to pass necessary order and restrain the respondents from taking any adverse action making dispossess the petitioner holding the post of Sarpanch Gram FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 2485 OF 2011 “Pushpabai Jagannath Dahitule Vs. The State of Maharashtra and others” Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram appearances, Court's Orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. 2 Panchayat Kaigaon on the strength of communication dated 17.2.2011 made by Additional Collector, Aurangabad.” 3] There is no dispute that till filing of nomination paper for the post of Sarpanch, the petitioner had not submitted proposal for seeking caste validity certificate. She was elected as Sarpanch on 15/9/2010. She submitted the proposal to the Collector for verification of her caste claim through Tahsildar on 21/9/2010. IN view thereof, the impugned communication dated 17/2/2011, was issued, whereby, the petitioner was informed that since she failed to submit caste validity certificate within the stipulated time, her election as Sarpanch would be treated as cancelled and she would be declared disqualified to hold the said post. 4] There is no dispute that the petitioner had submitted the proposal for seeking caste validity certificate to the Collector on 21/9/2010 and that the said proposal has been returned to the petitioner alongwith the impugned letter dated 17/2/2011, 5] We have perused the petition, so also, the annexures to the petition. It is clear that the petitioner was allowed to contest the election for the post of Sapranch on 15/9/2010, which was reserved for OBC category and at that stage caste validity FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 2485 OF 2011 “Pushpabai Jagannath Dahitule Vs. The State of Maharashtra and others” Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram appearances, Court's Orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. 3 certificate, or the proof of pendancy of her claim before the scrutiny committee, was not insisted for. After her election as Sarpanch, she submitted her proposal to the Collector for forwarding it to the concerned Scrutiny Committee on 21/9/2010. The Collector did not take any further step till the impugned communication was sent to the petitioner. In the circumstances, we are satisfied that this writ petition can be conveniently disposed of, by the following order :- -: O R D E R :- [i] The petitioner is allowed to re-submit her proposal for seeking validation of her caste claim, to the Collector, Aurangabad, for forwarding it to the concerned Scrutiny Committee, within a period of one week from today. [ii] If the petitioner submits the proposal within the stipulated time, the Collector shall forward the same to the concerned Scrutiny Committee, within two weeks therefrom. The concerned Scrutiny Committee shall decide the petitioner's caste claim within a period of six months from the date of receipt of her proposal, on merits in accordance with law. [iii] Till the caste claim of the petitioner is decided by the scrutiny committee, the impugned letter dated 17/2/2011 shall FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 2485 OF 2011 “Pushpabai Jagannath Dahitule Vs. The State of Maharashtra and others” Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram appearances, Court's Orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. 4 remain in abeyance. [iv] If the caste claim of the petitioner is allowed , the impugned letter shall render ineffective. [v] It is made clear that the petitioner shall not claim any equities if her caste claim is invalidated. It is needless to mention that the petitioner shall cooperate for the disposal of her caste claim, within the stipulated time and shall not seek adjournments on frivolous grounds. {vi] Till the petitioner's caste claim is decided by the scrutiny committee, the petitioner is allowed to function as Sarpanch. [vii] It is further made clear that we have passed this order, in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and it shall not be treated as a precedent. An authenticated copy of this order be given to the learned counsel for the parties to act upon. With these observations, writ petition is disposed of. [S.B. DESHMUKH,J.] [D.B. BHOSALE, J.] grt/-