S.N. Hussain, J.

1. Heard learned Counsel for the petitioner and learned Counsel for the State.

2. In this writ petition, prayer of the petitioner is to direct the respondents to grant/Issue caste certificate showing him to be belonging to Scheduled Tribe of Gond.

3. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that earlier certificate (Annexure 1) was issued to the petitioner by the Block Development Officer, Raghunathpur (Siwan) showing the petitioner to be belonging to Gond community of Schedule Tribe and the School Leaving Certificate issued from the school also shows that he belongs to the same community and his other relatives were also granted similar certificates. He also avers that the petitioner has applied for admission to the First Year of the Post Graduate Medical Course in the State of Bihar for the session 2006-2007 and for that a certificate was required in the prescribed format, for which he applied in February, 2006, but till date no certificate had been issued.

4. On the other hand, learned Counsel for the respondents vehemently opposes the. contention of the learned Counsel for the petitioner and submits that by letter dated 5.5.1997 (Annexure A to the counter-affidavit, corresponding to Annexure 6 to the writ petition), the state Government has held that there was a confusion between three communities, namely, Gond, Gour and Gonr, out of which Gour and Gonr belong to the extremely backward classes and only the Gond community belongs to Scheduled Tribe. He further submits that it was further held that due to this confusion, several certificates of Gond have been given to the members of the other communities and hence all the certificates granted prior to the said letter were cancelled.

5. Learned Counsel for the respondents further submits that an enquiry was held and the Revenue Karamchari and Circle Inspector as well as the Regional Observer had submitted their report, on the basis of which the Block Development Officer, Raghunathpur, had issued a certificate dated 23.6.2006 stating that the petitioner belongs to extremely Backward Caste-Annexure I and not to the Scheduled Tribe community. He further submits that in the aforesaid circumstances no certificate can be issued to the petitioner declaring him to be belonging to Gond community of Scheduled Tribe.

6. After hearing learned Counsel for the parties and after perusing the materials on record, it is quite apparent that earlier the petitioner and his relatives were granted certificates showing them to be belonging to Gond community of Schedule Tribe. The said certificates were cancelled by a general order of 1997 without considering each and every case and that is now being relied upon by the respondents for not granting certificate of Gond community of Scheduled Tribe to the petitioner.

7. So far the certificate of the Block Development Officer dated 23.6.2006 (Annexure B to the counter affidavit) is concerned, it appears that no such enquiry was held after filing of the petition by the petitioner and the respondents were sitting over the matter and only when this Court passed its order dated 25.5.2006 a non-speaking cursory certificate dated 23.6.2006 in five lines was prepared in haste-post-haste manner and has been produced without giving any opportunity to the petitioner to hear his claim. Furthermore, neither the reports of Revenue Karamchari, Circle Inspector etc. have been produced nor it is shown that on what basis it was arrived at, specially when there is nothing to show any illegality in the earlier certificate of the petitioner. Surprisingly enough even in the subsequent certificate ( Annexure B) it is stated that the petitioner belongs to Gond community of extremely backward class and not of Gond community belonging to Scheduled Tribe. This is quite a strange as according to the Schedule of the Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe, there is only one Gond community, which belongs to Scheduled Tribe and it does not belong to any of the backward classes. I am surprised that career of a student, having done his M.B.B.S. and selected for admission in Post Graduate Medical Course is being sought to be adversely affected by such arbitrary and irresponsible attitude of the respondents concerned.

8. In the aforesaid facts and circumstances, this writ petition is allowed and the petitioner is held to be belonging to Gond community of Scheduled Tribe.