KULKARNI GEETA M Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) by this petition under articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of india, the petitioner has prayed for issuance of a writ of mandamus or writ or order or direction in the nature of mandamus holding the circulars dated 22-7-1978 Annexure-D and 5-8-1978 Annexure-E , to be illegal, null and void as well as to be without any authority of law. The petitioner has further sought the relief for issue of writ of mandamus declaring the petitioner to be belonging to the scheduled caste being beda jangama, a sub-caste in veerashaiva religion and for a direction to respondents to drop all further proceedings initiated as per Annexure-A to this writ petition as well as for issue of direction to respondents to forbear from holding a departmental criminal proceedings, on the basis of annexures-d and e.

(2.) the facts of the case in a nutshell are that the petitioner claims to be belonging to beda jangama caste which is a sub-caste of veerashaivas. Further the case of the petitioner is that, as per scheduled castes and scheduled tribes order (Amendment) Act, 1976, (for short 'act'), beda jangama has been recognised as one of the scheduled castes. Petitioner's ancestors were jangamas and were known as beda jangamas. That the petitioner applied for grant of a certificate that he belonged to the beda jangama scheduled castes community and the tahsildar, belgaum-respondent 2, after holding the necessary enquiries issued a certificate in favour of the petitioner to the effect that petitioner belonged to beda jangama caste which comes under scheduled castes. Subsequent to the grant of the certificate, the petitioner moved application before the recruitment board for employment in the post of clerk-cum-typist and along with the application, he attached the copy of the certificate for an appointment under the scheduled caste reserved category. That the petitioner in 1980, was appointed as clerk-cum-typist and was allotted to uco bank, belgaum and had been serving there, under respondent 4.

(3.) subsequently, the police/sub-inspector, cre cell, belgaum, under the directions of deputy superintendent police, c.i.d., cre cell filed a complaint against the petitioner, on behalf of the state government alleging that the petitioner has committed offences under sections 177, 181, 196, 198 and 420, I.P.C. and the complaint was filed on January 2, 1988, in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, belgaum. As per complaint, and the allegations therein against the petitioner, she belonged to hindu lingayat community and that lingayat community did not belong to scheduled caste category and as such, the petitioner falsely claimed under the head beda jangama caste and a case had been registered against the petitioner. That on the basis of that criminal case No. 1472 of 1988. Petitioner was being unnecessarily harassed and the bank authorities were thinking of taking steps to suspend her. That beda jangama can also be lingayats its being the religious cult.