1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD. WRIT PETITION NO. 1729 OF 2010. Kum. Seema D/o Hanmallu Satalwar, Age 16 years(Minor), Occu. Education, Through her natural guardian i.e. Father Hanmallu S/o Balanna Satalwar, Age 36 years, Occu. Agril., R/o Hohal, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded .. PETITIONER. VERSUS 1) The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded. 2) Scheduled Tribe Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad Division, Aurangabad Through its Member Secretary. . RESPONDENTS. ... Shri S.S. Phatale, Advocate for Petitioner. Shri V.D. Godbharle, Assistant Government Pleader, for respondent Nos. 1. Shri P.S. Patil, Advocate for respondent No. 2. CORAM : A.M. KHANWILKAR AND S.S. SHINDE, JJ. DATE : 3rd MARCH, 2010. PER COURT: (S.S. Shinde,J.) 1. Heard Learned Counsel appearing for 2 the respective parties. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent of the learned counsel for the parties, the matter is taken up for final hearing at the stage of admission. This Writ Petition take exception to the decision dated 22-09-2009 passed by the respondent No. 2– Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad, thereby confirming the order passed by the Respondent No. 3 i.e. Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded on 17-06-2009. 2. It is the case of the petitioner that, she belong to ‘Koli Mahadev’ Scheduled Tribe. The petitioner applied for issuance of tribe certificate to Respondent No. 1 Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded, according to the petitioner, in spite of submitting school record of herself and her father wherein caste is mentioned as ‘Koli Mahadev’ Scheduled Tribe, the respondent authority has declined to issue Tribe Certificate of ‘Koli Mahadev’ Scheduled Tribe in favour of the petitioner. It is further case of the petitioner that, petitoner has submitted 3 validity certificate of his cousin brother of the petitioner from maternal side namely Balaji Maroti Talarwar and also filed his affidavit showing genealogy and relationship. It is further case of the petitioner that, the copy of school admission of grand father of petitioner namely Balanna Satalwar, in which date of admission is mentioned as 15-09-1955 and caste is mentioned as ‘Mahadev Koli’ Scheduled Tribe was submitted before the competent authority. In spite of submitting various documents on record supporting claim of the petitioner for issuance of Tribe Certificate, the competent authority without appreciating the said documents has rejected the application of the petitioner for issuance of Tribe Certificate. 3. The learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 2 Committee and the learned Assistant Government Pleader appearing for respondent No.1 vehemently opposed the petition and submitted that, the authority as well as Scrutiny Committee properly appreciated the documents on record and then only the impugned 4 orders are passed and therefore, this Court may not interfere in Writ Jurisdiction. 4. We have heard the respective counsel of the parties at length. It appears that, the petitioner has filed as many as 10 documents on record. However, competent authoirty failed to appreciate the evidential value of the said documents. In fact, the Circle Officer, Markhel after inquiry recommended for issuance of Tribe Certificate in favour of the petitioner as ‘Mahadev Koli’ Scheduled Tribe. On perusal of the documents submitted by the petitioner, we find that, in the school record of the father of the petitioner as well as document in respect of grand father of the petitioner caste is mentioned as ‘Mahadev Koli’. It appears that, Sub Divisional Officer rejected the claim of the petitioner on the ground that, the Tahasildar, Degloor has submitted report on the basis of Census Register of National People, 1951, in which caste of relatives of the petitioner is shown as ‘Koli’. 5 In fact, Sub Divisional Officer should have taken into consideration the validity certificate issued in favour of the cousin brother of the petitioner and also affidavit along genealogy showing relationship. 5. The petitioner’s carried the matter in appeal before the Scrutiny Committee who in-turn, rejected the appeal by following reasons given by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor. The order reads thus :- “ The appellant Kum Satalwar Seema Hanumant at Post Hattal, Tq. Degloor, Dist. Nanded requested to the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor Dist. Nanded to issue her a Tribe certificate belonging to “Mahadev Koli” Scheduled Tribe, but the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor Dist. Nanded refused to issue the same vide their order dated 17-01-2009 and therefore the Appellant filed an appeal before the Committee against the order of Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded vide application dated 04-07-2009. The Scrutiny Committee deeply observed the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded and the documentary evidence 6 submitted by the appellant along with the proposal and the Committee have come to the conclusion that, the Order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer,Degloor, Dist. Nanded is satisfactory and therefore the Committee is agreed with the decision taken by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor in the said case and Hence, the said appeal is rejected by the Committee.” 5. Having considered the rival submissions, in our opinion, neither the approach of the Sub Divisional Officer nor that of the Scrutiny Committee stand the test of judicial Scrutiny. The petitioner in support of her claim has submitted entire school record of the petitioner and of her father and grand father in which caste is shown as “Koli Mahadeo”, the petitioner also submitted validity certificate of her cousin brother namely Balaji Maroti Talawar and also filed his affidavit along with genealogy and relationship. In spite of above facts, documents and evidence produced on record by the petitioner before the respondent No.1, the 7 respondent No.1 rejected the application of the petitioner for getting caste certificate of “Koli Mahadev” Scheduled Tribe. In our opinion, merely because The Tahasildar, Degloor has submitted its report on the basis of Census Register of National People, 1951, wherein the caste of relatives of the petitioner is shown as ‘Koli’, is no ground to reject the application preferred by the petitioner for getting certificate of ‘Koli Mahadev’ Scheduled Tribe, without appreciating the documents on record filed by the petitioner. Accordingly, in our opinion, the view taken by the Sub Divisional Officer cannot be sustained. In so far as Scrutiny Committee is concerned, it has merely agreed with the opinion of the Sub Divisional Officer without recording any finding of its own. The Scrutiny Committee has not even bothered to analyze the documents produced by the petitioner, though it was dealing with the statutory appeal preferred by the petitioner. The approach of the Scrutiny 8 Committee to say the least, is perverse. 6. In the circumstances, In the above stated back ground, we quash and set aside the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor as well as respondent No.2-Committee and direct the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor to issue provisional tribe certificate belonging to ‘Koli Mahadeo-Scheduled Tribe’ in favour of the present petitioners within two weeks from today. It is needless to mention that, the said caste certificate will be subject to validation by the respondent No.2-Committee. Rule is made absolute to the above extent. Writ Petition is allowed and disposed of accordingly. . Rule is made absolute on the terms indicated above. [ S.S. SHINDE, J ] [ A.M. KHANWILKAR, J ] SDM* WP1729.10/040310.