SATBIR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved by the penalty of removal from service meted out to him on 25.08.2000 as also the appellate order dated 05.12.2000 whereby his appeal against the order of removal from service was rejected.

(2.) The petitioner has been removed from service as he allegedly produced false/bogus caste and domicile certificates. The case of the petitioner is that although the caste and domicile certificates which were produced by him in 1997 as a result of which he was enlisted in The CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) in July, 1997 against vacancies exclusively reserved for OBC and for residents of Delhi State, were fake, he had produced the same believing them to be genuine. It was further submitted on behalf of the petitioner that he had produced a genuine caste certificate as well as a genuine domicile certificate of 2000. It is also submitted that it is not in dispute that the petitioner, in fact, belonged to the caste of Ahir which is a recognised Backward Caste. There was, however, some dispute with regard to the domicile certificate of 2000. The learned counsel for the respondent urged that the said certificate disclosed the state of affairs in 2000, whereas what was necessary was the establishment of the factum of domicile in the year 1997 when the petitioner applied for enlistment in the CRPF. We shall advert to these arguments later on.

(3.) The facts leading upto the filing of the present writ petition need to be set out. As stated above, the petitioner was enlisted in the CRPF w.e.f. 07.07.1997 against vacancies exclusively reserved for OBC and for residents of Delhi State. At the outset, the learned counsel for the Respondents categorically submitted that the requirements for enlistment were essentially that the petitioner ought to have been a member of an OBC and ought to have been a resident of Delhi. The former could be established by producing a certificate to that effect and the latter could be substantiated in several ways, such as production of a Ration Card, ID Card, Voters Card issued by the Election Commission, Domicile Certificate, etc.