( 1 ) IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 5574 OF 2010 Pandit s/o Sukhalal Chaudhari PETITIONER VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & others RESPONDENTS .... Mr. B.R. Kedar, advocate for the petitioner. .... [CORAM : V.R. KINGAONKAR, J.] [DATE : 25th June, 2010] PER COURT : 1. Heard learned counsel. 2. The petitioner was admittedly member of the Village Panchayat. He filed nomination for post of Sarpanch. The nomination of the petitioner from category of Other Backward Class (OBC) was rejected. He preferred appeal vide dispute No. 5/2010. The Additional Collector, Jalgaon dismissed his appeal. He preferred further appeal which was dismissed by the Divisional Commissioner, Nasik. ( 2 ) 3. Counsel would submit that once the petitioner was elected on basis of his caste certificate, from the category of OBC, the further requirement of furnishing the validity certificate is onerous and ought to have been dispensed with. He would submit that the eligibility envisaged under section 30-1A of the Bombay Village Panchyayat Act, 1958, is of prospective character and, therefore, the petitioner was not required to furnish the caste validity certificate. His last contention is that the petitioner was not at fault because he had applied for validation of the caste certificate at the relevant time and was helpless because the Scrutiny Committee had not decided the matter. 4. It is explicit that the election as a member of the Village Panchayat by itself does not give eligibility to a person to seek further election to the post of Sarpanch from reserved category unless there is due compliance of section 30-1A. Section 30-1A reads as follows : “30-1A. Person contesting election for reserved office of Sarpanch to submit Caste Certificate and Validity Certificate. - Every person desirous of contesting election to the office of the Sarpanch ( 3 ) reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or, as the case may be, Backward Class of citizens, shall be required to submit along with the nomination paper, Caste Certificate issued by the Competent Authority and the Validity Certificate issued by the Scrutiny Committee in accordance with the provisions of the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Act, 2000.” Perusal of the above provision would make it amply clear that at the time of the election to the post of Sarpanch in addition to the caste certificate, the validity certificate is the necessary requirement. The petitioner cannot claim eligibility for the reason that earlier, he was declared as elected member from the OBC category. So also, it is not pointed out as to how he could have received concession of submitting such caste validity certificate at later stage. The election for the post of Sarpanch was conducted on 13th January, 2010 and admittedly, the amended provision of section 30 (1A) was then on Statute book. In this view of the matter, ( 4 ) I do not find any merit in the petition. It is dismissed. No costs. [V.R. KINGAONKAR] JUDGE NPJ/wp5574-10