1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR. WRIT PETITION NO.3329/2010 Ku. Priya Purushottam Nagore -VERSUS- The Caste Scrutiny Committee and others. with WRIT PETITION NO.3331/2010 Anushree Purushottam Nagore -VERSUS- The Caste Scrutiny Committee and others. _______________________________________________________________________ Office Notes, Office Memoramda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders of directions Court's or Judge's orders. and Registrar's Orders. ______________________________________________________________________________ CORAM : B.P.DHARMADHIKARI & P.D. KODE, JJ. DATED : 21.06.2011. Heard Shri R.S. Parsodkar, learned Counsel for petitioners, Shri Jichkar and Shri Sonare, learned A.G.Ps., for Respondent nos.1, 3 and 5 and Shri B.G. Kulkarni, learned Counsel for respondent no.4. Both the petitioners in the above petitions are real sisters and order by the respondent no.1 2 Scrutiny Committee dated 15.07.2010 invalidating their caste claim as belonging to “Rajput Bhamta” has been assailed before this Court. Shri Parsodkar, learned Counsel appearing for petitioners states that challenge basically is, in the light of the resolution of the Government of Maharashtra dated 22.08.2007 and its consideration by the Division Bench in its judgment reported at 2010 (6) Mh.L.J. 401 (Apoorva Vinay Nichale .vrs. Divisional Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee and others). He invites attention to the fact that in present matters, father of petitioners, their uncle and their cousin were already given validity and initial police vigilance cell report was also in favour of the petitioners. According to the learned Counsel only with a view to find out some defect, malafidely, an effort was made and a second report was obtained on 04.05.2009. Thereafter the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 3329/2010 filed Writ Petition No. 2523/2009 and the petitioner in Writ Petition No.3331/2010 filed Writ Petition No. 2521/2009 before this Court and the Division Bench of this Court has specifically found that 3 the correctness of certificate given to father of petitioners in the year 1996 was no where doubted. He points out that, the judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court reported at 2009 [1] Mh.L.J. 1 (Raju Ramsingh Vasave .vrs. Mahesh Deorao Bhivapurkar) was also then pressed into service, but was found not applicable. In this background, he invites attention to the impugned orders to urge that the documents treated as valid and validity granted on their strength has been ignored and thus the Government resolution dated 22.08.2007 as also the judgment in case of Apoorva Vinay Nichale (supra), has been breached. Learned A.G.Ps., appearing in the matters for respondent no.1 Committee as also respondent no.5, have supported the impugned order. Attention is invited to the fact that as the earlier police vigilance report / inquiry was found incomplete, decision to have fresh investigation was taken and accordingly the investigating officer at Nagpur has conducted the enquiry. The report of vigilance cell dated 04.05.2009 was received on 11.05.2009 and that report revealed 4 that during enquiry conducted at the native place namely Akoli Jahangir, Tahsil Akot, District Akola, it was found that the caste of father of petitioners, their uncle and even of petitioners was originally recorded as “Rajput” in the school records. Not only this, the revenue receipts which were looked into while issuing the validity to the father and other relatives could not be verified, as their authenticity could not be established. In view of this material the order was passed by the Scrutiny Committee on 14.05.2009 and that was challenged by the petitioners in the writ petitions mentioned above. Learned A.G.Ps., have also pointed out that after remand, number of opportunities was given to father of petitioners and petitioners to explain the adverse material on record, but they have not utilized the same and they remained absent, hence the impugned order came to be passed. It is apparent that very same documents looked into by the Scrutiny Committee while issuing validity to father, uncle and cousin of petitioners, have been again re-appreciated by the present Scrutiny 5 Committee. The re-appreciation is in the light of the vigilance cell report dated 04.05.2009 received by the Committee on 11.05.2009. After that re-appreciation order invalidating the caste claim of petitioners had been passed on 14.05.2009 and that was challenged by the petitioners in Writ Petition No. 2523 and 2521 of 2009 and this Court has allowed those Petitions on 29.03.2010 and 08.04.2010 respectively and judgment of Hon'ble Apex Court in the matter of Raju Ramsingh Vasave (supra), was specifically held to be not applicable. There is also an observation that the caste claim of petitioners father was no where doubted. The orders passed by this Court in earlier Writ Petitions dated 29.03.2010 and 08.04.2010 have attained finality. It is therefore, apparent that subsequent verification by the investigating cell dated 04.05.2009 could not have been looked into by the Committee at all. Thus facts show that the documents on which a particular view has been taken by the Scrutiny Committee earlier, have not been accepted by the Committee later on, though there is no change in the 6 circumstances. We, therefore, find the controversy covered by the Division Bench judgment in the case of Apoorva Vinal Nichale (supra). In view of this, the impugned order passed by the Scrutiny Committee dated 15.07.2010 in both the matters, is hereby quashed and set aside. The Scrutiny Committee shall proceed further with the consideration of the controversy in the light of the earlier orders passed by this Court in Writ Petition nos. 2523 and 2521 of 2009 and also the Division Bench Judgment in case of Apoorva Vinal Nichale (supra). The Committee shall take appropriate decision in the matter, as early as possible, and in any case within a period of four weeks from today. Writ Petitions are accordingly allowed. Rule is made absolute in the aforesaid terms in both the petitions, with no order as to cost. JUDGE JUDGE Rgd