Non-Reportable

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO.  10740             OF 2011 (Arising out of  Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 29584 of 2009)

Omprakash, s/o Chandranath Arya     …….Appellant

Versus

State of Maharashtra & Ors. ……Respondents

J U D G  M E N T

CHELAMESWAR, J.

Leave granted.

2. The State of Maharashtra made a law known as  “Maharashtra  

Scheduled  Castes,  Scheduled  Tribes,  De-Notified  Tribes  (Vimukta  

Jatis),  Nomadic  Tribes,  Other  Backward  Classes  and  Special  

Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of Caste)  

Certificate Act, 2000”. Under Section 3 of the  said Act it is stipulated  

that any person belonging to the scheduled caste or scheduled tribes  

etc,   is  required to  produce a  ‘caste  certificate’∗ in  order  to  claim  

benefit of reservation either for the purpose  of  public employment  or  

admission to educational institutions or for contesting elections in any  

* Sec.2(a)  “Caste Certificate” means the certificate issued by the Competent Authority to an applicant  indicating therein the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, De-Notified Tribe (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic  Tribe, Other Backward Classes, Special Backward Category, as the case may be, to which such  applicant belongs;

local  authority  etc.   and  such  a  certificate  is  to  be  obtained  by  

applying to the “Competent Authority”.   

“(3)  Application  for  a  Caste  Certificate:- Any  person  belonging  to  any  of  the  Scheduled  Castes,  Scheduled Tribes, De-Notified tribes (Vimukta Jatis),  Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes or Special  Backward  Category,  required  to  produce  a  Caste  Certificate  in  order  to  claim  the  benefit  of  any  reservation  provided  to  such  Castes,  Tribes  or  Classes,  either  in  any  public  employment  or  for  admission  into  any  educational  institution,  or  any  other  benefit  under  any  special  provisions  made  under Clause (4) of Article 15 of the Constitution of  India  or  for  the  purpose  of  contesting for  elective  post  in  any  local  authority  or  in  the  co-operative  societies; or for purchase or transfer of land from a  tribal land holder or any other purposes specified by  the  Government,  shall  apply  in  such  form and  in  such  manner  as  may  be  prescribed,  to  the  Competent  Authority  for  the  issue  of  a  Caste  Certificate.”

3. Section 4 stipulates that the “Competent  Authority”  on being  

satisfied by the genuineness of the claim of the applicant shall issue a  

caste certificate.

4. Section 6 of the said Act contemplates the constitution of one or  

more  Scrutiny  Committees  by  the  State  Government  for  the  

verification of the correctness of any caste certificate issued by the  

Competent  Authority.   Sub-section  (2)  thereof  stipulates  that  any  

person, who obtains a caste certificate from the “Competent Authority”  

is  required  to  make  an  application  for  issuance  of  the  validity  

certificate.   Section  6  in  so  far  as  (1-IV)  relevant  for  the  present  

purpose reads as follows.

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(6)Verification  of  Caste  Certificate  by  Scrutiny Committee.  (1) The Government shall  constitute by notification in the Official Gazette,  one  or  more  Scrutiny  Committee  (s)  for  verification  of  Caste  Certificates  issued  by  the  Competent Authorities under sub-section (1) of  section 4 specifying in the said notification the  functions and the area of jurisdiction of each of  such Scrutiny Committee or Committees.

(2) After obtaining the Caste Certificate from the  Competent Authorities, any person desirous of  availing of the benefits or concessions provided  to the Scheduled castes, Scheduled Tribes, De- Notified  tribes  (Vimukta  Jatis),  Nomadic  Tribes,  Other  Backward  Classes  or  Special  Backward  Category  for  the  purposes  mentioned  in  section  3  may  make  an  application, well in time in such form and in  such  manner  as  may  be  prescribed,  to  the  concerned  Scrutiny  Committee,  for  the  verification of such Caste Certificate and issue  of a validity certificate.”

5. It appears from the exhibit P-8 that under the provisions of the  

Maharashtra  Zilla  Parishad  and  Panchayat  Samiti  Act,  1961,  the  

candidate elected from a reserved constituency is required to present  

the caste certificate before the Scrutiny Committee for verification.   

6. The “caste certificate” of the appellant is in issue in the instant  

appeal.  The appellant claims that he belongs to a community known  

as “Kathik” which admittedly is recognised as scheduled tribe in the  

State of Maharashtra.  He contested and was elected as a member of  

Zilla  Parishad  from  the  Ambulga  constituency  reserved  for  the  

scheduled tribes against the fifth respondent.

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7. The appellant submitted his caste certificate before the above  

mentioned Committee for scrutiny.

8. By  Order  dated  4.6.2007,  the  Committee  (fifth  respondent),  

accepted the claim of the appellant.

9. Aggrieved by the said decision, the fifth respondent had earlier  

approached the Bombay High Court  by way of  a  Writ  Petition  No.  

7026 of 2007.  By the Judgment dated 7th August, 2008, the said writ  

petition  was  allowed  and  the  matter  remitted  back  to  the  fifth  

respondent.    The  fifth  respondent  by  a  fresh  Order  dated  26th  

November, 2008, recorded that the claim of the appellant could not be  

sustained.  Therefore,  the appellant herein  had earlier approached  

the Bombay High Court by writ petition No. 7436 of 2008 which was  

allowed by the Judgment dated 17th January, 2009 on the ground that  

the  fifth  respondent  did  not  comply  with  the  requirement  of  the  

Principles of Natural Justice and once again remitted the matter back  

with the appropriate  directions.

10. On  such  remand,  the  fifth  respondent  once  again,  after  an  

appropriate enquiry, passed an order dated 25.2.2009 invalidating the  

caste  certificate  and  recommended  to  the  Regional  Commissioner,  

Aurangabad to set aside the election of the appellant herein to the  

Zilla Parishad.

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11. Challenging the above-mentioned decision, the appellant herein  

once  again  approached  the  Bombay  High  Court,  by  way  of  writ  

petition No. 1633 of 2009, which stood dismissed. Hence, the special  

leave petition.

12. A  very  vehement  attempt  is  made  by  the  learned  counsel  

appearing for the appellant inviting the attention of this Court to the  

various documents in a bid to invite a conclusion on facts contrary to  

the one reached by the Bombay High Court. They are:

(i) an unregistered Sale Deed said to have been executed by  

the  father of the appellant herein approximately in 1941  

wherein the  father of the appellant is described as person  

belonging to ‘“Khatik” caste.

(ii) a certificate allegedly issued by the “Scrutiny Committee”  

in favour of an alleged nephew of the appellant, who is  

shown in the certificate to be a person belonging to the  

“Khatik” community.

(iii)  a  register  of  the  school  where  the  appellant  studied  

where conflicting entries were made regarding the caste  

status of the appellant.  Initially the appellant was shown  

as  a  person  belonging  to  the  “Khatik”  community  and  

later as a person belonging to ‘“Kalal” community.  

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13. The  “Scrutiny  Committee”  declined  to  place  any  reliance  on  

such  documents  for  arriving  at  a  conclusion  in  favour  of  the  

appellant.  The High Court recorded very cogent reasons for refusing  

to interfere with the conclusions raised by the “Scrutiny Committee”.   

14. The  High  court  held  that  the  authenticity  of  the  first  of  the  

above-mentioned documents  is not established. Coming to the second  

of the above-document, it was held that there is no material on record  

to  establish  the  actual  relationship  between the  appellant  and the  

alleged nephew of the appellant. In so far as the third of the above-

mentioned document is concerned, the High Court opined that though  

there are  conflicting entries in the record of the school service book of  

the appellant, the appellant never took care to get the record corrected  

and he accepted the entry that he belong to the “Kalal” community  

without questioning the same.

15. All that the appellant is asking us in the instant appeal is to  

make a third guess on facts. The evidence produced by the appellant  

was examined by the “Scrutiny Committee” and the examination was  

quite  elaborate.  The  legality  of  the  conclusions  reached  by  the  

“Scrutiny  Committee”  was  examined  by  the  Division  Bench  of  the  

Bombay High Court and by the judgment under appeal it was held  

that the said conclusions did not warrant any interference.

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16. No  legal  principle,  which  warrants  interference  with  the  

conclusion reached by the High Court, is brought to our notice. The  

appeal is, therefore, dismissed.

…………………………..J ( P. SATHASIVAM)

…………………………..J. (J. CHELAMESWAR)

NEW DELHI; DATED : DECEMBER 09, 2011.

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