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Judgment
. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally with the consent of the parties.
This petition challenges the decision of the Committee dated 27.06.2007 by which the Committee has invalidated the tribe claim of the petitioner as belonging to ‘Thakur, Scheduled Tribe’.
Heard learned advocate for the petitioner and learned AGP for the State assisted by learned Law Officer of the Committee. Perused the original record made available by learned AGP.
Before the Committee, the petitioner has relied upon the validity certificate issued to his first cousin Darpana. Darpana has also filed affidavit stating that the petitioner is her cousin and is having blood relations with her.
Learned AGP strenuously submits that Darpana is issued show cause notice, as to why her validity certificate should not be recalled. She would submit that Darpana has not given genealogy showing that she is related to the petitioner. She further submits that other blood relatives of the petitioner are granted validity certificates, to them also show cause notices are issued by the Committee. However, they are not appearing before the Committee. Therefore, according to her, the petitioner is not entitled for validity certificate.
In support of his claim, the petitioner has relied upon the decision of this Court in Writ Petition No. 3215 of 2020 and other connected petitions in the case of Ashwini Radha Kishan Shankpal and Others. According to petitioner, the petitioners therein are related to him. This Court by relying on Apporva Vinay Nichale Vs. Divisional Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee No.1 and others; 2010 (6) Mh.L.J. 401 and Shweta Balaji Isankar Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors., in Writ Petition No. 5611 of 2018 was pleased to partly allow the petitions and set aside the decision of the Committee and directed to grant conditional validity to the petitioners therein by observing that,
“We make it clear that as these petitioners have relied upon the validities of 8 paternal family members, invalidation of the claim of any validity holder after reopening of the case, in the light of the suppression of the invalidation of Mahesh and Sharad the consequences suffered by the said candidates would also be suffered by these 5 petitioners and they would attract the same consequences.”
It appears from the above order that the invalidation order passed in the case of petitioner Mahesh and Sharad, petitioner in Writ Petition No. 7596 of 2007 was suppressed by Amol before the Committee. Due to that, this Court directed to grant conditional validity to the petitioners in those petitions.
Learned AGP, at this stage insisted that the matter may be remitted back to the Committee for consideration afresh. In the light of subsequent orders passed by Committee and the show cause notices issued to the validity holders / relatives of the petitioner, we are not inclined to accept the said contention. As the matter is pending since 2007 and since this Court has granted conditional validity to the blood relatives of the petitioner, we are inclined to follow the same course.
In the result, writ petition is partly allowed. The impugned decision is hereby quashed and set aside.
The Committee is directed to issue validity certificate to the petitioner as belonging to ‘Thakur, Scheduled Tribe’.
It is made clear that if the tribe claims of Darpana and Amol, blood relatives of the petitioner are invalidated by the Committee, the petitioner shall suffer the same fate and his certificate will have to be invalidated.
Rule is made absolute in the above terms with no order as to costs.