Aditya Raikwar vs The Schedule Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee

(PER: M. W. CHANDWANI, J.):-

Heard.

Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of the learned counsels for the parties.

The Schedule Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati (for short, “the Committee”) by its order dated 04.02.2022 invalidated the caste claim of the petitioner who claims to be belonging to ‘Halbi’ Scheduled Tribe.

The petitioner has filed various documents before the Committee showing his as well as the caste of his forefathers as ‘Halbi’ from 01.06.1893 till the recent dates. The Committee referred the case of the petitioner to the Vigilance Cell for enquiry. In the enquiry, the Vigilance Cell procured two contra documents: the first one is the birth/death extract dated 05.09.1943 of Yashwant, the cousin great grandfather of the petitioner and the second one is the admit/cancel register extract of the year 1930 of the cousin grandfather namely Gulab Ganpat, wherein their caste has been shown as ‘Koshti’. Though, the petitioner has relied on the oldest document i.e. the school record of Ganpat Vailaji, the great grandfather of the petitioner, but since the said document is in ‘Modi’ language; therefore, due to non-availability of translation of the said document, the Committee did not consider that document and relied on the document of the year 1930 of the cousin grandfather namely Gulab Ganpat, which was found in Vigilance enquiry, to invalidate the caste claim of the petitioner. Moreover, the document i.e. the birth extract of Yashwant dated 05.09.1943 has also been relied upon by the Committee to reject the claim. Perusal of the genealogical tree of the petitioner does not reveal the name of Yashwant as the relative of the petitioner.

This Court, by order dated 23.01.2024, permitted the petitioner to get the school record dated 01.06.1893 of his grandfather translated from ‘Modi’ language to ‘Devnagri’ language. Pursuant to the said liberty granted by this Court, the petitioner got the said document translated by one Ramnath Ravindranath Raval, an expert in ‘Modi’ language. A pursis dated 15.10.2025 is filed on record along with the affidavit of Shri Ramnath Ravindranath Raval, wherein he has categorically mentioned that the school records belonged to the great grandfather of the petitioner, who studied in Municipal Council Marathi School, Abbaspura, Tah. Achalpur, Dist. Amravati. Entry no. 6 is in the name of Ganpat Vailaji, the great grandfather of the petitioner and the caste mentioned is ‘Halbi’. Thus, the oldest document is dated 06.01.1893 which shows the caste of the great grandfather of the petitioner as ‘Halbi’ i.e. older than the documents belonging to the year 1930 and 1943 which have been relied upon by the Committee for invalidating the caste claim of the petitioner. The document of the year 1893 was discarded only on the ground that it was written in ‘Modi’ language. In wake of the pursis and the affidavit of the ‘Modi’ language expert, the position has now been crystallized. Needless to mention that, the oldest documents have more probative value. {See: Yogesh Madhav Makalwad Vs. State of Maharashtra [2025 INSC 964] and Anand Vs. Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims [2011 (6) Mh.L.J. 919]}.

In view of the above, in our considered opinion, the findings recorded by the Committee are required to be set aside.

So far as the submission of the learned AGP that, in wake of the translation of the document belonging to the year 1893, the matter may be remanded back to the Committee for vigilance enquiry is concerned, we do not find any reason to remand the matter to the Committee because the document of the year 1893 has not been considered by the Committee only on the ground that it is written in ‘Modi’ language and not in Devnagri. In wake of the translation of the document of the year 1893 available on record, the submission of the learned AGP is hereby rejected.

Hence, we proceed to pass the following order:-