IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR 1.Writ Petition Nos.4836/2008 (Sudhakar s/o Dnyaneshwar Parhate Vs. Vs. The Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims and others. 2. Writ Petition No. 4837/08 (Vasant s/o Vithoba Barapatre Vs. The Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims and others.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders or directions Court's order Judge's orders and Registrar's order ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mr. N. R. Saboo, Adv. for the petitioner. Mr. Patil, Adv. for the respondent no.1 Committee. Mr. Mishra, Adv.for the respondent nos. 2 and 3 Coram : B.H. Marlapalle & A.H. Joshi, JJ. Dated : 05/12/2008 Heard Mr. Saboo, the learned counsel for the petitioners. Both the petitioners came to be appointed as Assistant Teacher in the Primary Schools of the respondent no.2-Zilla Parishad and against the posts reserved for scheduled tribe as both of them claimed to belong to “Halba” scheduled tribe. They were required to submit their caste verification certificate which certificate was not submitted till October 2008 and, therefore, the Zilla Parishad passed an order on 24.10.2008 terminating the services of the petitioners. Hence, the petitioners have approached us, being similarly placed, the petitions are being disposed off by a common order. Prima facie, we are satisfied that the Competent Authority issued a caste certificate in favour of both the petitioners that they belong to “Halba” scheduled tribe and pursuant to the communication dated 20.11.2001 addressed by the respondent-Zilla Parishad to the Head Masters of the Primary Schools, they claimed to have submitted all the documents for verification of their tribe claims so that the Zilla Parishad would forward those documents to the respondent no.1-Committee for scrutiny. The respondent nos. 2 and 3, on the other hand, state that no such documents were received by them and, therefore, the impugned order was issued as the petitioners did not submit the caste validity certificate issued by the competent Scrutiny Committee. The respondent-Zilla Parishad has passed orders on 2.12.2008 and suspended the impugned termination order in respect of those teachers, whose caste verification proceedings are pending before the Scrutiny Committee and as of now the Zilla Parishad disputes that the petitioners do not fall in the category-B for which, such a benefit has been granted. However, as noted above, we are satisfied that the petitioners must be given an opportunity to approach the respondent no.1- Committee, so as to get their tribe claims scrutinized and in case. they fail before the Committee, the impugned order will take effect. If the petitioners approach the respondent no.1- Committee within a period of one week from today and submit an application with relevant documents for verification of their tribe claims, we direct respondent no.1 Committee to accept the said application and verify the scheduled tribe claim belonging to “Halba”. The verification proceedings be completed, as expeditiously as possible, and in any case before 31st May, 2009. The petitioners shall not seek any adjournment before the Committee and they will remain present before the Committee on the dates fixed. On receipt of Vigilance Cell Report, the Committee will, undoubtedly, issue show cause notice and hear the petitioners within two weeks from issuance of show cause notice. The petitioners shall furnish before the respondent no.1-Committee the address of their permanent residence under the Amravati division so that the notices issued by the Committee would be sent on the same address. Consequently, we stay the impugned order till the verification of the petitioners' tribe claim or till 31st May, 2009, whichever is earlier. The petition is disposed off in terms of the above directions. JUDGE JUDGE Ambulkar