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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
WRIT PETITION NO.2273 of 2001
Ayaz Ahmad Abdul Razzaque,
Adult, Occu - Business,
Residing at Kirti Nagar,
Manmad Taluka Nandgaon,
District Nasik. ..... Petitioner
V/s.
1. State of Maharashtra,
through its Secretary,
Social Welfare Department,
Mantralaya, Mumbai - 400 032.
2. Committee for Scrutiny and
Verification of Tribe Claims,
Nasik Division, Nasik,
through its Member Secretary,
Nasik. ..... Respondents
Mr.R.K.Mendadkar, for the petitioner.
Mr.B.D.Joshi, for the Intervenor.
Mr.V.S.Gokhale, AGP, for respondent Nos.1 and 2.
CORAM : P.B.MAJMUDAR &
R.M.SAVANT, JJ.
DATE : 23rd June, 2010
ORAL JUDGMENT : (PER R.M.SAVANT, J.) :
1. By this petition filed under Section 226 of the Constitituion
of India, the petitioner takes exception to the order dated 25-04-2001
passed by the Caste Scrutiny Committee, invalidating his caste claim as
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belonging to Tadvi (ST). It is not necessary to burden this order with
elaborate facts. Suffice it to say that one of the grounds on which the said
order is assailed is that though the hearing took place before the
Committee comprising of one More, the order has been signed by one
Smt.Shewale, who was appointed in place of Shri More, without the said
Smt.Shewale having participated in the hearing on any of the dates. The
said ground finds place in ground (ii) at Page 17 of the petition. On the
said aspect, we had granted time to the learned AGP to take instructions in
the matter. Learned AGP after taking instructions, has fairly stated that
the said fact cannot be controverted on the basis of the record. To lend
credence to this fact, learned AGP has placed on record a copy of the fax
which he received from the Member Secretary & Dy. Director (R),
Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nashik, dated
23-06-2010. The said copy of the fax dated 23-06-2010 is taken on
record and marked ‘X’ for identification. In the said circumstance, it is
not necessary for us to deal with the other grounds of challenge, as in our
view, the order is vitiated on account of the fact that the same has been
signed by a member (Smt.Shewale) who had not heard the matter and a
member who had actually heard the matter (Shri More), had not signed
the order.
2. We are therefore, required to allow the above petition by
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quashing and setting aside the order dated 25-04-2001 and remand the
matter back to the Caste Scrutiny Committee, Nasik, for a de novo
consideration. On such remand, the Caste Scrutiny Committee is directed
to decide the caste claim of the petitioner within a period of two months
from the production of this order before it by the petitioner or the
intervenor. The Caste Scrutiny Committee shall decide the said caste
claim of the petitioner after giving opportunity to the concerned parties.
3.
However, we cannot loose sight of the fact that in number
of matters, we have found that though the hearing has taken place before
a particular set of members who constituted the Scrutiny Committee, the
orders have been signed by member/members who have actually not
heard the matters. This results in the process of caste validity being
protracted, as the matters are required to be remand back to the Caste
Scrutiny Committee on the said ground. At times, we find that the said
act is glaring, particularly in cases where people are holding political
offices and same cannot be attributed to an innocent mistake. We are
therefore, constrained to issue directions to the effect that in the event a
member who has heard the matter is transferred to any other Committee
in the State of Maharashtra, the order of the scrutiny committee should be
sent to him for signature, so that there is no delay in the matter of
deciding caste claim of the applicants and the same would also result in
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avoiding unnecessary litigation. Let copy of this order be sent to the
Principal Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Government of
Maharashtra, so that necessary instructions can be issued to all the Caste
Scrutiny Committees in that behalf.
4. Rule is accordingly made absolute in the aforesaid terms
with parties to bear their own costs.
( R.M.SAVANT, J. )
ig ( P.B.MAJMUDAR, J. )
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