{1} IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.5633 OF 2009 Naresh Tukaram Mergewad R/o Himayatnagar, Tq-Himayatnagar, Dist-Nanded PETITIONER VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra Through Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai 2. The Scheduled Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Aurangbad Through its Deputy Director (R) 3. The Sub Divisional Officer Kinwat, Tq-Kinwat Dist-Nanded RESPONDENTS ....... Mr.P.V.Jadhavar, Advocate for petitioner Mr.S.V.Kurundkar, Addl.G.P. for respondents No.1 and 3 Mr.U.S.Malte, Advocate for respondent No.2 ....... [CORAM : P.V.HARDAS, and A.V.POTDAR, J.J.] DATE : 26th August 2009 ORAL JUDGMENT (PER A.V.POTDAR, 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} 2. By this petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner challenges the order dated 30.04.2009 passed by the Scrutiny Committee by which the petitioner is directed to tender documents before the Sub Divisional Officer, Kinwat. 3. The facts, in nutshell, which gave rise to file the present petition can be summarized as under - The petitioner had submitted an application before the Sub Divisional Officer seeking caste certificate claiming to be belonging to Mannerwarlu Scheduled Tribe. The petitioner had submitted various documents along with the application including the caste validity certificate issued in favour of real brother of the petitioner namely Mahesh Tukaram Mergewad. The Sub Divisional Officer, vide order dated 30.09.2008, without referring the aforesaid document, rejected the application submitted by the petitioner by observing that the documents are not sufficient for issuing caste certificate in favour of the petitioner. Being aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner has preferred an appeal before the Scrutiny Committee. The Scrutiny Committee, vide order dated 30.04.2009, directed the petitioner to submit documents before the Sub Divisional Officer, Kinwat. The said order is impugned in this petition. 4. Heard learned counsel for the parties. 5. During the course of arguments advanced on behalf of the petitioner, the learned counsel has emphasized mainly on two points i.e. the scrutiny committee has no jurisdiction to remand the matter to the {3} Sub Divisional Officer and secondly the Sub Divisional Officer has not appreciated the documents tendered before him. We are in agreement with both the submissions, as the scrutiny committee has no jurisdiction to remand the matter to Sub Divisional Officer for reconsideration and secondly the documents submitted by the petitioner are not considered at all. No doubt, the documents showing the caste of the father of the petitioner were not produced before the Sub Divisional Officer, but the fact remains that the real brother of the petitioner has been issued caste validity certificate, which certificate was submitted before the Sub Divisional Officer. It is apparent that the Sub Divisional Officer as well as Scrutiny Committee has not considered the documents submitted by the petitioner. The orders impugned in the writ petition are thus erroneous and hence require to be quashed and set aside. Accordingly, we quash and set aside the impugned orders passed by the Scrutiny Committee as well as by the Sub Divisional Officer, Kinwat. We hereby direct the Sub Divisional Officer, Kinwat to issue caste certificate in favour of the petitioner as belonging to Mannerwarlu Scheduled Tribe, forthwith. 6. Needless to say that the caste certificate to be issued will be subject to verification by the competent scrutiny committee. 7. Rule is thus made absolute on the above terms with no order as to costs. [A.V.POTDAR, J.] [P.V.HARDAS, J.] drp/wp5633-09