Case: VILAS DINKAR BHAT Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

This appeal is directed against the final judgment and order dated 12.07.2004 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Writ Petition No.7518 of 2002 and the judgment and order dated 11.12.2006 in Review Petition No.2982 of 2006 whereby the High Court dismissed the Writ Petition and also the Review Petition filed by the appellant hereinAccording to the appellant, he by birth belongs to Thakar caste which is a Schedule Tribe and, therefore, he is entitled to claim a declaration to that effect in his favourFor claiming this declaration, the appellant approached to the Committee concerned and also the High Court of Bombay twice but his claim suffered dismissal before the Committee and the High Court in the writ petition on both the occasions giving rise to filing of this appeal by way of special leave against the order of the High Court.

Reasoning:
Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and on perusal of the record of the case, we are inclined to allow the appeal and while setting aside the impugned order and also the order of the Committee, remand the case to the Committee for fresh consideration of thes case on its meritOn perusal of thes order, we find that the Committee though considered some documents filed by the appellant but did not consider all the documents on which the appellant had placed reliance. The High Court in its writ jurisdiction declined to go into the merits of the writ petition stating that since the issue involves questions of fact, it is not possible to examine the case on facts in its writ jurisdiction. It is more so when the Committee probed the issue in detail on factsIn our opinion, when a party relies upon any evidence, whether it is oral or documentary, in support of his case, the Court/Committee/Authority, as the case may be, and especially the original Court is under an obligation to apply its mind to the entire documentary evidence on which the party has placed reliance for proving his case and record its reasoned findings whether accepting the evidence or rejecting it. What is important is the consideration of entire evidence adduced by the parties in accordance with law while deciding the caseIt is for this reason, we consider it proper to remand the case to the Committee for reconsideration of thein accordance with law keeping in view our observation made supra because we find that this principle was not followed by the Committee while considering theThe Committee will decide the matter after affording an opportunity to the appellant strictly in accordance with law without being influenced by any of our observation on merits which we have refrained to make once formed an opinion to remand the case to the Committee.