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Judgment
Heard.
Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of the learned counsels for the parties.
The caste claim of the petitioner came to be invalidated by the respondent no. 2- Vice Chairman/Member Secretary, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Akola (for short, “the Committee”) only on the ground that there are two contra documents; one document is showing the name of the grandfather of the petitioner as ‘Mirga’ while the other document is showing the name of the grandfather of the petitioner as ‘Sadhu’. The petitioner has failed to establish that ‘Sadhu’ and ‘Mirga’ are two different names of the same person i.e. the grandfather of the petitioner.
The petitioner was appointed as ‘Conductor’ with respondent no. 3 on a post reserved for Scheduled Castes. Therefore, the caste claim of the petitioner was referred to the Committee for validation.
The petitioner produced various documents showing that he as well as his forefathers belong to ‘Mahar’ (Scheduled Caste). The controversy revolves around two documents i.e. Kotwal Register extract dated 19.12.1961 showing Atmaram, the father of the petitioner, born to Sadhu Akaram and another document relating to the school leaving certificate dated 11.07.1969 in the name of Atmaram Mirga Chandane in which the name of the grandfather of the petitioner is mentioned as ‘Mirga’. The Committee passed the order of invalidation by majority wherein, the President of the Committee expressed a dissenting view and accepted that the petitioner belongs to ‘Mahar’ (Scheduled Caste); however, the other two members rejected the caste claim of the petitioner. The impugned order dated 05.03.2019 is challenged in this petition.
We have heard the learned counsels for the respective parties and have also gone through the impugned order, more particularly the two contra documents. Before referring to the two documents, we would like to mention that the birth entry dated 17.12.1919 which is in the name of the great grandfather of the petitioner namely Akaram shows his caste as ‘Mahar’. It appears that the name of the petitioner’s grandfather is Sadhu @ Mirga which resulted into the split decision of the Committee. However, we find that the oldest document dated 17.12.1919 has been relied upon by the petitioner and there is no dispute/doubt raised by the Committee on this document. It is not the case that the Committee has doubted the relation of the petitioner with Akaram as his great grandfather. The petitioner has filed an affidavit dated 19.07.2018 showing the name of his grandfather as Mirga @ Sadhu Akaram and the birth extract of the great grandfather of the petitioner showing his caste as ‘Mahar’ which is beyond the pale of doubt. However, the Committee ignored this aspect and solely relied on the two different names of the grandfather of the petitioner mentioned in two different documents to discard the caste claim of the petitioner.
Having gone through the oldest document of the year 1919 belonging to the great grandfather of the petitioner coupled with the affidavit filed by the petitioner, we are of the view that the order passed through majority by the Committee does not stand to the reason and is required to be set aside. We uphold the minority view expressed by the Committee and therefore, the impugned order dated 05.03.2019 passed by the Committee is hereby quashed and set aside.
It is hereby declared that the petitioner belongs to ‘Mahar’ Scheduled Caste.
The Committee is directed to issue caste validity certificate to the petitioner within two months from the date of receipt of this order.
In the abovesaid terms, the petition is disposed of. Rule is made absolute accordingly. No costs.