Dhiraj Barekar vs Joint Commissioner & Vice-Chairman, Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Gondia

Heard.

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

The caste claim of the petitioner that he belongs to ‘Mana’ (Scheduled Tribe) has been invalidated by the respondent - Joint Commissioner & Vice-Chairman, Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Gondia (for short, “the Committee”) by order dated 29.09.2002 which is under challenge in this petition.

The petitioner is a student pursuing his studies. He applied for validation of his caste claim before the Committee. The petitioner filed all the documents showing his as well as the caste of his forefathers as ‘Mana’ (Scheduled Tribe) starting from the year 1941 till the recent years. The Committee referred the matter to the Vigilance Cell for enquiry. The Vigilance Cell concluded that some of the documents show contra entries in the name of the cousin grandfather of the petitioner namely, Devrao Sampat showing his caste as ‘Kunbi (Mana)’ and the school record in the name of Rajendra, the father of the petitioner showing his caste as ‘Kunbi’. The petitioner also relied on the validity certificates granted to three of his cousins. However, relying on the contra entries found in the Vigilance enquiry, the Committee invalidated the caste claim of the petitioner.

The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the oldest entry i.e. school record dated 15.03.1941 in the name of Rama Sampat Bhadu, the elder grandfather of the petitioner shows his caste as ‘Mana’. There are three validity certificates in the family of the petitioner and therefore, it is submitted on behalf of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the oldest entry of ‘Mana’ is to be relied upon.

The learned AGP submitted that the great grandfather of the peittioner has five sons namely Ramaji, Balkrushna, Devrao, Baburao and Shamrao. In the school record of Devrao dated 16.06.1952, the caste is shown as ‘Kunbi’ and therefore, there is no consistency in the entries. According to him, the Committee has rightly invalidated the claim of the petitioner.

Having heard the learned counsels for the respective parties and having gone through the impugned order and the documents filed on record, we find that Ramaji, Devrao, Baburao and Shamrao are the cousin grandfathers of the petitioner and Balkrushna Sampat Bhadu, is the grandfather of the petitioner. Rama Sampat Bhadu and Balkrushna Sampatiji Bhadu were studying in Zilla Parishad Higher Primary School and their school record dated 15.03.1941 and 15.02.1943 respectively, show their caste as ‘Mana’. Though, the documents of the other cousin grandfather i.e. Devrao is showing his caste as ‘Kunbi’ but the fact remains that the oldest entry is in the name of Rama Sampat dated 15.03.1941 and the second oldest entry dated 15.02.1943 is in the name of Balkrushna Sampat Bhadu showing their caste as ‘Mana’. That apart, three validity certificates have been granted to the cousins of the petitioner namely Pratiksha, Ruchika and Gaurav validating their caste claim of belonging to ‘Mana’ (Scheduled Tribe). Just because Vigilance enquiry was not conducted prior to issuance of their validities, the validity certificates granted to them cannot be ignored.

In some of the documents, the caste of the relatives of the petitioner is shown as ‘Mani’; however, in wake of the decision in the case of Priya Pramod Gajbe Vs. State of Maharashtra [2023 SCC OnLine SC 909] , there is no caste named ‘Mani’. Perhaps this may be a typographical error as observed by the Supreme Court in case of Priya Gajbe (supra). Hence, in view of the fact that there are consistent entries in various documents showing the caste of the petitioner and his relatives as ‘Mana’ and there exists three caste validities in the family of the petitioner, we are of the view that the petitioner belongs to ‘Mana’ Scheduled Tribe. Hence, the following order:-