1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD. WRIT PETITION NO. 1517 OF 2010 Datta S/o Yadavrao Naikwadi, Age 20 years, Occu. Education, R/o At Post Biloli, Tq. Biloli, Dist. Nanded. .. PETITIONER. VERSUS 1) The State of Maharashtra, Through it’s Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai-32. 2) The Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad, through its Dy. Director (R), Aurangabad . 3) The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded. RESPONDENTS. ... Shri P.V. Jadhavar, Advocate for Petitioner. Smt. A.V. Godhalekar, Assistant Government Pleader, for respondent Nos. 1 & 3. Shri P.S. Patil, Advocate for respondent No. 2. CORAM : A.M. KHANWILKAR AND S.S. SHINDE, JJ. DATE : 25th FEBRUARY 2010. PER COURT: (S.S. Shinde,J.) 2 1. Heard Learned Counsel appearing for the respective parties. Rule, returnable forthwith. With the consent of the parties, heard finally at the stage of admission. This Writ Petition take exception to the decision dated 22-09-2009 passed by the respondent No. 2-Committee, thereby confirming the order dated 06-07-2009 passed by the Respondent No. 3 the competent authority rejecting the application issuance of Tribe Certificate of ‘Koli Mahadeo-Scheduled Tribe’ 2. It is the case of the petitioner that he belong to ‘Koli Mahadeo-Scheduled Tribe’ which is notified and recognised as Scheduled Tribe. He applied for issuance of ‘Koli Mahadeo-Scheduled Tribe’ to respondent No. 3. However, respondent No. 3 rejected application filed by the petitioner and observed that, upon perusal of the field book of Biloli, Dist. Nanded, it is noticed that caste of the relatives of the petitioner is mentioned as ‘Koli’ in the said field book. 3 3. The learned counsel appearing for the respondent No.2-Committee has vehemently opposed the petition and submitted that, the impugned decision is founded on sound reasons and does not call for interference in Writ jurisdiction. We have heard the learned counsel appearing for the respective parties and perused the impugned order of the competent authority as well as decision of the respondent No. 2- Committee and also documents placed on record. The Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, rejected the application of the petitioner on the ground that, the evidence produced by the petitioner is not sufficient to issue Tribe Certificate in favour of the petitioner. 4. The petitioner carried the matter in appeal before the Scrutiny Committee, who in-turn rejected the appeal by following reasons recorded by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor. The said order is reads as thus :- “ The Appellant Shri Naikwadi Datta Yadvrao At Post Biloli, Tq. Biloli, 4 Dist. Nanded requested to the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded to issue her a Tribe Certificate as belonging to “Mahadev Koli” Scheduled Tribe but the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded refused to issue the same vide their order dated 06-07-2009 and therefore the Appellant filed an appeal before the Committee against the order of Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded vide application dated 29-07-2009. The Scrutiny Committee deeply observed the order passed by the Sub Divisional Officer, Degloor, Dist. Nanded and the documentary evidences 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 5 Scrutiny Committee can stand the test of the judicial scrutiny. Indeed, the Sub Divisional Officer has noted that the fathers certificate, service book record mentions that his caste as ‘Mahadeo Koli-Scheduled Tribe’ There are also other documents in respect of blood relatives on record produced by the petitioner. On perusal of the impugned order passed by the competent authority, it is clear that, number of documents were submitted by the petitioner in support of his claim, however, the Sub Divisional Officer, has failed to appreciate those documents. The Revenue Officer of the said area has also recommended for issuance of caste certificate in favour of the petitioner. 6. In so far as the 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 6 Committee to say the least, is perverse. 7. 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 ‘Mahadeo Koli-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 Petitions is allowed and disposed of accordingly. [ S.S. SHINDE, J ] [ A.M. KHANWILKAR, J ] SDM* WP1517.10