-: 1 :- HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Writ Petition No. 8146 of 2009 Chintan Mahesh Parmar. ..Petitioner. Versus I/c Principal, Sir J.J.College of Architecture & Others. ..Respondents. Mr. Ravindra Lokhande for the Petitioner. Mr. Sagar Talekar a/w R.A. Rodrigues for the respondent no.1. Mr. A. B. Vagyani, AGP for the Respondent – State. Coram : S. B. Mhase & R. M. Savant, JJ. Date : September 25, 2009. P. C. : 1. Heard. Rule, returnable forthwith. 2. The Petitioner is a student of the second year of Architecture with the Respondent no1 – college. The Petitioner claims that he belongs to Hindu Darji which is recognised as Other Backward Class by the Government of Maharashtra at Sr. No. 236. Initially the petitioner got a certificate as Hindu Shimpi. It was invalidated. Therefore, the Petitioner preferred Writ Petition No. 2424 of 2008 in this Court and in that petition also he claimed that he is Hindu Darji. The said Writ Petition was withdrawn with a view to get fresh caste certificate from the competent authority and place it before the Caste Validation Committee for validation. Accordingly, the Petitioner has -: 2 :- obtained a caste certificate from the competent authority stating that he belongs to Hindu Darji. The said certificate is required to be validated under section 6 of The Maharashtra Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes (Vimukti Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Class and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Act, 2000 (Maharashtra Act 23 of 2001) [for short “the said Act”]. Accordingly the Petitioner approached the respondent no.3 - Committee but his application was not accepted, on the ground that the Petitioner has directly approached the respondent no.3. 3. It is not necessary for a person claiming benefits of the reservation that the said person should file the application through some organisation/agency, for example, the person like petitioner to file it through the school or college. He can present it directly to the Scrutiny Committee. The person who is desirous of using the caste certificate, can directly present the application under section 6 of the said Act to the Scrutiny Committee. Therefore, non acceptance of the application of the Petitioner by the Scrutiny Committee is wrong. Without commenting further on this aspect, we find that the Scrutiny Committee should have accepted the application of the Petitioner and -: 3 :- proceeded with the enquiry in accordance with the law. 4. Under these circumstances, we allow the petition. We direct the Scrutiny Committee to accept the application of the Petitioner for validation of the caste certificate as Hindu Darji. We direct the Respondent No.1 to allow the Petitioner to continue the education in second year of Architecture subject to the result of the Scrutiny Committee. 5. The Scrutiny Committee is directed to complete the enquiry in respect of the caste claim of the Petitioner within a period of 6 months from today. The Petitioner shall co-operate with the Scrutiny Committee for early disposal of the petition. The Petitioner shall submit his application under section 6 of the said Act to the Scrutiny Committee within a period of one week from today. On such an application being presented, the Scrutiny Committee should accept it and decide it in accordance with law and procedure. 6. Rule is accordingly made absolute in the aforestated terms. (R.M.SAVANT, J.) (S.B.MHASE, J.)