1. Heard.

2. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith.

3. Being aggrieved by the order dated 10/04/2023 passed by the respondent No.2 in Case ID No.ED-2022-785576 dated 07/12/2022, rejecting the validity of caste certificate of petitioner, belonging to ‘Mochi’ caste on the basis of a document received by it during enquiry by the Vigilance Squad in respect of the petitioner’s great grandfather, grandfather, without taking into consideration the caste validity certificate granted to her father by the Caste Scrutiny Committee, Nagpur and her parental uncle (father’s brother) by the Caste Scrutiny Committee, Pune and pre-independence documents submitted by her for the validation of her caste certificate before the respondent No.2 for Scrutiny, this petition has been filed challenging the said decision.

4. The petitioner is a student of Nityanand High School Itwari, Nagpur studying in 12th Class. The petitioner belongs to ‘Mochi’ Community which is notified Scheduled Caste. The petitioner has been granted caste certificate dated 21/10/2020 issued by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Amravati, in Revenue Case No.MRC-40092127004. The petitioner intending to pursue further studies upon passing her Higher Secondary School Certificate Examination, submitted her Application dated 22/10/2022 for verification of caste claim of ‘Mochi’ Scheduled Caste along with her caste certificate.

5. It is contention of the petitioner that on 31/03/2023, the respondent No.2 Committee sent a notice of hearing to the petitioner on the report of Vigilance Squad submitted to respondent No.2 on 02/03/2023. The Vigilance Squad has reported that, the caste of petitioner’s ancestors is entered as ‘Mochi’ in all the records and on inquiry with the extended family members of petitioner, they have affirmed that the petitioner belongs to the caste ‘Mochi’ (Gujarati) and they belong to Hindu Religion. It is further contended that respondent No.2 passed an order dated 10/04/2023 rejecting the petitioner’s claim for validation of her caste certificate on the ground that she had not produced any credible evidence of period prior to 13/10/1950 to prove her claim of belonging to Scheduled Caste ‘Mochi’.

6. It is also contended that the respondent No.2 has grossly erred in holding that the petitioner had not produced any credible evidence of period prior to 13/10/1950 to prove her claim of belonging to Scheduled Caste ‘Mochi’ as a ground for rejecting the petitioner’s claim in her application in Form 16 of belonging to the caste ‘Mochi’, specifically when the petitioner on 10/04/2023 produced on record the documents pertaining to sanctioned building plan dated 18/03/1944 and the documents pertaining to the property of great grandfather of petitioner at Amravati.

7. It is contended that the inquiry report of Vigilance Cell shows that there is no adverse entry as per report of the said Vigilance Cell in respect of the veracity of the documents submitted by the petitioner as well as the home inquiry conduced by them and hence there was no reason whatsoever for the respondent No.2 to discard the said evidence produced by the petitioner in support of her claim that she belongs to the caste ‘Mochi’. The order passed by the very Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati dated 22/08/2022 in the matter of petitioner’s cousin Ku. Divya Mukeshbhai Chawda came to be challenged on similar grounds before this Court in Writ Petition No.6971/2022 and the said order of the respondent No.2 was quashed and set aside by this Court’s judgment dated 19/04/2023 and the respondent No.2 was directed to issue validity certificate to the said Ku. Divya Mukeshbhai Chawda for her caste ‘Mochi’ Scheduled Caste.

8. It is submitted that, the order passed by the respondent - Scrutiny Committee is totally erroneous, illegal and contrary to the law laid down by the Superior Courts.

9. The learned Asst. Govt. Pleader placed before us the record and proceedings of the Caste Scrutiny Committee. There is no dispute over the family tree. However, he supported the order passed by the Caste Scrutiny Committee.

10. It appears that the caste ‘Mochi’ was included at Sr. No. 11 in the list of Scheduled Caste dated 10/08/1950. There are following old entries showing caste of the great grandfather namely Shamji Karasanji as ‘Mochi’.

11. It needs to be noted here that, there is validity certificate issued by the Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Pune as well as the validity certificate issued by the Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nagpur to the uncle and the father of the petitioner respectively. As per the enquiry report, there is no adverse entry or finding. As such, there was no reason for the Caste Scrutiny Committee to invalidate the caste claim of the petitioner as she belongs to caste ‘Mochi’. It appears that, the caste claim of cousin of the petitioner namely Divya Mukeshbhai Chawada was invalidated by the Amravati Caste Scrutiny Committee, which was challenged in Writ Petition No. 6971/2022, wherein this Court had quashed and set aside the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee and directed it to issue validity certificate to said Divya for her caste ‘ Mochi’, in view of the fact that, there is no dispute over the family tree. It appears that in the order passed by the Caste Scrutiny Committee, it is held that, the forefathers of the petitioner resided at Amravati from more than four generations. It is also observed that, the school record of grandfather Mansukhlal Shamji Chawada shows caste as ‘Mochi’. There is the sanctioned letter to construct house dated 16/02/1944 in favour of Shamji Karsanji Mochi. Though the Scrutiny Committee held that, there is entry of ‘Mochi’, however, it relied on the Vigilance Cell report and held that, this Mochi is Gujrati one. Similarly, it is held in respect of documents dated 17/02/1944 and 1954-55, however, in our considered opinion, one cannot add in the entry of ‘Mochi’ as ‘Gujrati’ without there being any such entry in the presidential order. Though the petitioner has not placed the copy of judgment in Divya Chawada before the Committee, the petitioner also was not able to demonstrate how Divya is in relation with the petitioner. However, considering the old documents and validity in favour of the father as well as real uncle of the petitioner, the Caste Scrutiny Committee ought to have validated the caste claim of the petitioner.

12. In Mah. Adiwasi Thakur Jamat Swarakshan Samiti V/s. State of Maharashtra [2023 SCC Online SC 326] (supra), the Hon’ble Apex Court held that, “when as many as seven persons from the same genealogical tree have been granted validity certificates by the same Committee, there was no reason whatsoever for the Committee to doubt the veracity of the claim made by the petitioner. The finding rendered by the Committee that the certificates issued to the relatives in absence of the vigilance cell enquiry could not be relied upon, is clearly untenable in law." In the present matter, there are two validity certificates issued in favour of father and real uncle of the petitioner. There are old documents of pre-independence era showing forefathers of the petitioner were ‘Mochi’. As such, there was no valid reason to respondent – Committee to reject the claim of the petitioner.

13. As such, the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee is liable to be set aside being unjust, arbitrary and erroneous. Accordingly, we proceed to pass the following order:-

ORDER

i) The Writ Petition is allowed.

ii) The order dated 10/04/2023 passed by the respondent no. 2 - the Deputy Commissioner and Member, District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati in the matter of the petitioner- Ku. Yogini D/o. Amit Chawda in Case ID No. ED-2022-785576 dated 07/12/2022, is hereby quashed and set aside.

iii) It is held that the petitioner has duly established that she belongs to the Scheduled Caste ‘Mochi’ as included in Entry No. 11 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950.

iv) The respondent no. 2 - the Deputy Commissioner and Member, District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati are hereby directed to issue validity certificate to the petitioner of Scheduled Caste ‘Mochi’ within a period of four weeks from today.

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