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SCA/24258/2007 2/ 2 ORDER
IN
THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
SPECIAL
CIVIL APPLICATION No. 24258 of 2007
WITH
SPECIAL
CIVIL APPLICATION No. 22105 of 2007
WITH
CIVIL
APPLICATION No. 11878 of 2007
=========================================
KAMLABEN
LAKHABHAI KHANT - Petitioner(s)
Versus
STATE
OF GUJARAT & 2 - Respondent(s)
=========================================
Appearance :
MR
YASH N NANAVATY for
Petitioner(s) : 1,
MS MINI NAIR, AGP for Respondent(s) : 1,
RULE
SERVED BY DS for Respondent(s) : 2 -
3.
=========================================
CORAM
:
HONOURABLE
MR.JUSTICE D.H.WAGHELA
Date
: 05/05/2011
COMMON
ORAL ORDER
The
petitioners are aggrieved by orders dated 10.08.2007 of the
Commissioner, Scheduled Tribes Development Department, whereby
certificates dated 01.06.2000 and 03.07.1997 issued in favour of
petitioners, declaring them to be belonging to Scheduled Tribe are
ordered to be cancelled. The certificates in question came under
scrutiny when the petitioners applied for admission to ATD course in
the year 2000. By virtue of orders dated 08.10.2004 of this Court in
Special Civil Application No. 12974 of 2004 and in Special Civil
Application No. 12356 of 2004, the authorities are stated to have
granted admission to the petitioners for PTC and ATD courses
respectively and they are stated to have completed that course and
degree is stated to have been awarded to them.
According
to the impugned orders dated 10.08.2007, the petitioners had claimed
to be members of Hindu Bhil Khant community and they have claimed to
be belonging to Scheduled Tribe on the basis that they were covered
by Entry No. 4 in Part IV of the First Schedule to the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act, 1976.
Admittedly, only the communities of various types of Bhil are covered
in the schedule and Bhil Khant is not included in Entry No. 4 of the
Schedule.
The issue sought to be raised in the petitions is squarely covered by
the Constitution Bench decision of the Apex Court in State of
Maharashtra Vs. Milind & Ors. [2001 (1) SCC 4], according
to which it is not at all permissible to hold any enquiry or let in
any evidence to decide or declare that any tribe or tribal community
or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community is included
in the general name even though it is not specifically mentioned in
the Entry concerned in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order,
1950. Applying the ratio of that judgement, the petitions have to be
dismissed with the clarification that the degree, if any, awarded to
the petitioners on the basis of their admission as member of the
Scheduled Tribe shall not be cancelled. Accordingly, the petitions
are dismissed and rule is discharged with no order as to costs. The
Civil Application is disposed as not surviving.
[D.H.WAGHELA,
J.]
JYOTI
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