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Judgment
V. Gopala Gowda, J.-The petitioner has filed this writ petition seeking a declaration that Rules 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Appointments, etc.) Rules, 1992 are repugnant and opposed to Article 254 of the Constitution of India and the Brochure on Reservation issued by the Government of India and further sought for quashing the notification at Annexure-A2, the order at Annexures-A3 and A4 and a direction is sought to the 10th respondent to appoint the petitioner to the post of Higher Primary School Teacher. Reliance is placed by the learned Counsel for the petitioner on residuary Entry 97 of the Union List in support of the grounds urged in the writ petition.
All the facts, the contentions raised and the decisions referred to need not be gone into by this Court in view of enactment of the Karnataka Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (Reservation of Appointments, etc.) Rules, 1992 under Entry 41 of State List II. Therefore, there is no repugnancy under Article 254 of the Constitution of India in respect of the Act referred to above and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendmemt) Act (Central Act 63 of 1956).
The contention urged that the provisions of Central Act 63 of 1956 and the procedure laid down in the Brochure will prevail over State Act 7 of 1991 and the Rules framed thereunder by the State in the matter of issuing Caste Certificate, cannot be accepted as there is no repugnancy in the said Act and the Central Act. The reason is, the aforesaid Acts have been enacted by the Parliament and the Karnataka State Legislature in exercise of the powers conferred under different entries in Lists I and II in this regard. In this view of the matter, there is no necessity for this Court to refer and consider the various decisions cited and relied upon by the learned Counsels for the parties.
The Tahsildar is the Competent Authority to issue the Caste Certificate and the same has to be verified by the Verification Committee constituted under Rule 4 of the Karnataka Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (Reservation of Appointments, etc.) Rules, 1992 as per Annexures-A1 and A2. Hence, the Deputy Commissioner ought not to have passed the impugned order at Annexure-A3 as he has no power or jurisdiction. On this score the same is liable to be quashed.
The Caste Certificate at Annexure-A19 is issued by the Tahsildar. Annexure-A3 is not certified by the President of the Caste Verification Committee. Hence, the same cannot be accepted as a valid order.
In the impugned order at Annexures-A3 and A4 a finding is recorded that the petitioner does not belong to the Caste to which she is claiming. The said finding cannot be sustained for the reason that the same is recorded with reference to certain documents, copies of which are not furnished to the petitioner to put forth her case. The findings recorded by respondents 5 and 8 without furnishing the copies of documents to the petitioner are violative of principles of natural justice. Added to this, the findings are recorded by them without assigning reasons in support of the same.
The impugned order at Annexure-A4 is also not sustainable in law as the Appellate Authority has not considered the case of the petitioner properly. In the said order, only the findings recorded in Annexure-A3 are endorsed. The Appellate Authority should have noticed that the findings recorded by the Deputy Commissioner are violative of principles of natural justice for the reasons stated in the previous paragraph of this order. The Appellate Authority also should have noticed that the order appealed against was not the order passed by the Caste Verification Committee but by the Deputy Commissioner who has no jurisdiction in the matter.
Since the Tahsildar has issued the Certificate in favour of the petitioner, the validity of the same has to be gone into by the Caste Verification Committee. Hence, the impugned orders are liable to be quashed and the matter has to be remanded to the said Committee.
Accordingly, this writ petition is partly allowed. The impugned orders at Annexures-A3 and A4 are quashed. The matter is remanded to the District Caste Verification Committee, Bangalore Rural District to verify the Caste of the petitioner and pass appropriate orders within four weeks.