RAJ KAPOOR KACHWAHA Vs. STATE OF C G

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners by this writ petition under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India, have questioned the propriety and correctness of the order dated 6-8-2004 issued by respondent No.2, whereby respondent No.2 ordered that petitioner No.2 is not entitled for admission in the Government Engineering College on the basis of the Scheduled Caste certificate granted in favour of him.

(2.) BRIEF facts leading to filing of this writ petition are that petitioner No.2 is the son of petitioner No. 1. Petitioner No.2 is a student and his mother Smt: Krishna Khatik is working as Chief Municipal Officer in the State of Chhattisgarh. After re-organization of the State of Madhya Pradesh on 1st November, 200\), petitioner No.2's mother was allocated to the State of Chhattisgarh on her option under Annexure P-1. Petitioner No.2 applied for appearing in the Pre-Engineering Test, which was held by the Board of Secondary Education on 4th & 5th June, 2004. Petitioner No.2 applied for the said test as a Scheduled Caste category candidate. He also filed the caste certificate (Annexure P-5) issued in his favour on 10-1-2002 by the Sub Divisional Officer, Ambikapur. He also filed the domicile certificate Annexure P-6. Petitioner No.2 secured the renk 02115/00092 in the said test and he was called to appear in the counselling. A communication (Annexure P-8) to that effect was sent to him. Accordingly, he appeared in the counselling and during the course of counselling, respondent No.2, the authorized officer, passed order to the effect that the petitioners' fore-fathers were residents of Katni on 10-8-1950, therefore, he is not entitled for the reservation benefit, and per-force petitioner No.2 had to take admission as a general category candidate. Petitioner No.2 had questioned the said decision on the ground that his mother Smt. Krishna Khatik was allocated to the State of Chhattisgarh and she is working as Chief Municipal Officer in the State of Chhattisgarh. The petitioners belong to Khatik caste, which is classified as Scheduled Caste under the Presidential Order for the State of Madhya Pradesh, as well as the Khatik caste has also been notified as Scheduled Caste in the State of Chhattisgarh. The State of Chhattisgarh vide its circular dated 6th July, 2004, has issued a circular that the children of Government servants or any other servants of Corporation, Board or Public Undertaking who have been allocated to the State of Chhattisgarh upon re-organization of the State, will be granted caste certificate and will be entitled for the benefit of reservation on the basis of involuntary migration. The said circular is Annexure P-12. Therefore, the petitioners have prayed for issuance of writ of certiorari quashing the order dated 6-8-2004 issued by respondent No.2 and for direction to the State by a writ of mandamus to consider the petitioner's case on the basis of caste certificate of Scheduled Caste.

(3.) REJOINDER has also been filed on behalf of the petitioners.