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Judgment
. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally with the consent of parties.
By this petition, the petitioner challenges the decision of the Committee dated 27.06.2007 thereby invalidating the tribe claim of the petitioner that he belongs to ‘Thakur, Scheduled Tribe’.
Heard learned advocate for the petitioner, learned AGP for the State assisted by the Law Officer of the Committee. Perused the original record made available by learned AGP.
Before the Committee, petitioner has relied upon the validity certificate dated 30.06.2000 issued to his first cousin Avinash Dattatraya Shankpal. Reliance is also placed on the validity certificate issued to Gopal Devidas Shankpal, cousin brother of the petitioner dated 26.07.2004 by the Aurangabad Committee and his affidavit and the validity certificate issued to Darpana Janardan Thakur, distant relative of the petitioner.
The Committee though has observed in the impugned order that in all the documents relied upon by the petitioner, the caste is described as ‘Thakur’, however, in no documents the caste is mentioned as ‘Thakur, Scheduled Tribe’. The said finding recorded by the Committee is totally erroneous. Till date, we have not come across a single case, wherein in the caste column of the documents relied upon by the claimants, the caste is mentioned as ‘Thakur, Scheduled Tribe’.
The Committee has refused to rely upon the validity certificates issued to the blood relatives of the petitioner by relying on the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Kum. Madhuri Patil V/s. Additional Commissioner, Tribal Development & others; (1997) 5 SCC 437.
In the light of the decision of the Hon’ble Apex Court in Mah. Adiwasi Thakur Jamat Swarakshan Samiti Vs. State of Maharashtra and Others 2023 SCC OnLine SC 326, if the blood relatives are granted validity, then on the ground of parity, the petitioner is also entitled for the validity.
Learned AGP has submitted that Darpana, Gopal and Avinash are issued show cause notices as to why their validity certificates should not be recalled. According to her, they are not responding to the show cause notices.
In view of the above, since the blood relatives of the petitioner are given validity certificates, we are inclined to grant conditional validity to the petitioner.
In the result, writ petition is partly allowed. Impugned order is quashed and set aside.
Committee shall issue forthwith issue validity certificate to the petitioner that he belongs to ‘Thakur, Scheduled Caste’ within eight weeks from the date of receipt of this order. The validity certificate of the petitioner shall be conditional. In case, the claim of Darpana, Gopal or Avinash is invalidated, the petitioner’s certificate would stand invalidated.
Rule is made absolute in the above terms with no order as to costs.