Collector,Bilaspur vs Ajit P.K.Jogi & Ors

2. The first respondent (Ajit P.K. Jogi) claimed that he belonged to a tribal community known as `Kanwar', a notified Scheduled Tribe. He obtained social status/caste certificates from time to time, showing him as belonging to Kanwar-Scheduled Tribe, that is, certificate dated 6.6.1967 from the Naib Tehsildar, Pendra Road, Bilaspur, certificate dated 27.2.1984 by the Naib Tehsildar, Pendra Road, Bilaspur, certificate dated 6.3.1986 by the Tehsildar, Pendra Road, certificate dated 12.1.1993 by the Naib Tehsildar, Pendra Road, Bilaspur, certificate dated 11.8.1999 by Naib Tehsildar, Indore, certificate dated 8.1.2001 from the Addl. Collector, Bilaspur and certificate dated 30.9.2003 by Addl. Collector, Bilaspur. The first respondent was elected twice to Rajya Sabha and contested two parliamentary elections from Raigarh and Shahdol constituencies. He successfully contested from Marwahi Vidhan Sabha constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes in 1991. On 1.11.2000, when the State of Chhattisgarh came into existence, the first respondent became its first Chief Minister and served in that capacity till December, 2002.

4. The Commission issued a show cause notice to the first respondent proposing to verify his caste certificate. The Commission referred the complaint received from the sixth respondent to the Chief Secretary, Government of Chhattisgarh on 29.1.2001. The state government (fourth respondent) responded to the Commission stating that it had constituted a committee dated 27.2.2001 for verification of caste certificates and the reference received from the Commission had been transmitted to the Principal Secretary, Department for Welfare of SCs, STs, OBCs and Minorities Welfare (fifth respondent) for necessary verification through the said Committee. The Commission thereafter summoned the Chief Secretary of Chhattisgarh to appear before the Commission on 24.1.2001 with all documents relating to the caste status of the Chief Minister (first respondent). The Commission summoned the Principal Secretary, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department to appear on 18.5.2011 4 with the records. He responded and made available the instructions issued by the state government relating to verification of caste certificates. He submitted that having regard to the provision made by the state government for verification of caste certificate by a scrutiny committee, the Commission did not have jurisdiction to verify the caste certificate issued to the first respondent. The Commission felt that there was want of co-operation from the Government of Chhattisgarh and instructed its branch at Bhopal to ascertain the correct position and verify the caste claim of the first respondent. Apparently, the Bhopal office collected some material to show that the first respondent belonged to Satnami caste (a backward class) and that he did not belong to Kanwar Scheduled Tribe and that he got elected as a MLA from a reserved constituency for Scheduled Tribes, based on a false caste certificate. On the basis of alleged material so collected, the Commission called upon the first respondent, vide notice dated 26.5.2001 to offer his explanation and also appear before the Commission on 30.9.2001 with necessary documents. One Mr. R. N. Sharma, Chief Legal Adviser to the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh appeared on behalf of the first respondent and submitted a reply dated 12.9.2001 to the notice dated 26.5.2001. Several documents were furnished and written submissions were also filed. 5

5. The Commission made an order dated 16.10.2001. We extract below the preamble and operative portion of the said order :

6. The said order was challenged by the first respondent by filing WP No.2080 of 2001 in the Chhattisgarh High Court. A Division Bench of the High Court by the impugned order dated 15.12.2006 allowed the writ petition. It held that the complaint of the sixth respondent before the Commission questioning the social status of first respondent was politically motivated, that the first respondent had been openly claiming the status of a person belonging to a scheduled tribe, at least from the year 1967 and had obtained several certificates certifying his status and had contested several elections as a person belonging to a scheduled tribe, that his status was 6 challenged before the Madhya Pradesh High Court in WP No.1417 of 1988 and WP No.1039 of 2001 and the said petitions had been dismissed and as the decisions of the High Court were judgments in rem, the Commission could not have ignored those judgments. The High Court also held that the Commission had violated the principles of natural justice as it had collected material behind the back of the first respondent and recorded adverse findings without disclosing the material collected by it to the first respondent and without giving an opportunity to the first respondent, to have his say on such material. The court also passed strong observations against the sixth respondent stating that the entire exercise was politically motivated. Consequently, it allowed the writ petition, quashed the entire proceedings of the Commission as also the findings in the order dated 16.10.2001 as being void and inoperative.

(7) Where any such report, or any part thereof, relates to any matter with which any State Government is concerned, a copy of such report shall be forwarded to the Governor of the State who shall cause it to be laid before the Legislature of the State along with a memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the State and the reasons for the non- acceptance, if any, of any of such recommendations.

Re : Questions (ii) to (iv)

19. We therefore allow these appeals in part as under :

....................................J [R. V. Raveendran] ....................................J [H. L. Dattu] New Delhi;

October 13, 2011.