Tushar Visave vs The State Of Maharashtra & Ors.

(NITIN B. SURYAWANSHI, J.) :-

. This petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, challenges the decision of the Scrutiny Committee dated 05.05.2007, thereby invalidating the tribe claim of the petitioner as belonging to “Thakur, Scheduled Tribe”.

We have heard learned Advocate for the petitioner and learned A.G.P. for the respondent/State assisted by Law Officer of the Committee. Perused the record produced by learned A.G.P

Admittedly, there are pre-constitutional entries of the great grand father of the petitioner dated 5^th July, 1915 in the school leaving certificate recording his caste as “Thakur”. In the school leaving certificate of grand father of the petitioner namely, Sitaram Dharma Visave, his caste is recorded as Hindu Thakur on 01.12.1945. Apart from these two documents, the validity certificate is issued to the petitioner’s father by Pune Scrutiny Committee on 29.01.2001 and the petitioner’s real paternal aunt has received the validity certificate from Pune Committee on 05.07.1997.

In view of the judgment in the case of Maharashtra Adiwasi Thakur Jamat Swarakshan Samiti Vs. The State of Maharashtra and Ors, 2023 SCC Online SC 326, since the tribe claim of the blood relatives of the petitioner is validated by the Scrutiny Committee, the petitioner is entitled for validity of his tribe claim on the ground of parity. Admittedly, there are no contra entries.

The Committee has erroneously ignored the pre-constitutional documents and has rejected the claim of the petitioner on untenable ground that Thakur surname is found in higher castes also.

Other grounds on which the Committee has rejected the tribe claim of the petitioner is that the petitioner has failed to pass affinity test and area restrictions. In view of the judgment in the case of Anand Vs. Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims, others, (2012) 1 SCC 113, the affinity test is not a limus test and cannot be a sole ground to reject the caste claim. In view of decision the judgments in the cases of Jaywant Dilip Pawar Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors., 2018(5) ALL MR 975 and Maharashtra Adiwasi Thakur Jamat Swarakshan Samiti Vs. The State of Maharashtra and Ors., 2023 SCC Online SC 326, the area restriction is now no more ground available for rejecting the caste claim. In view of this, both these grounds cannot sustained.

In view of the above, as there are pre-constitutional documents of great grand father - Dharma Devchand Thakur, grand father - Sitaram Dharma Visave of the petitioner and validity certificate is issued to father of the petitioner, the petitioner is entitled for validity of his tribe claim and the impugned decision is liable to be set aside.

For the aforestated reasons, writ petition is allowed. The impugned decision of the committee dated 05.05.2007 is hereby quashed and set aside. The Committee is directed to issue the validity certificate to the petitioner that he belongs to Thakur, Scheduled Tribe, within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of this order.

Rule is made absolute in the above terms with no order as to costs.