HEMANT KUMAR Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By means of this writ petition, the petitioner has sought a writ in the nature of mandamus for a direction to the respondents to issue caste certificate to the petitioner forthwith.

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that petitioner belongs to Chamar caste which is shown as Scheduled Caste (S.C.) in the notification issued by the State of Uttarakhand. Petitioner is residing in the Pantnagar, Tehsil Kiccha since his birth. Father of the petitioner is working on the post of Educational Assistant Grade-II in the department of Uttarakhand Seeds and Tarai Development Corporation Ltd. since 12.06.1985. Petitioner got his entire education from the State of Uttarakhand. After completing his education, petitioner is in urgent need of caste certificate for higher studies. Therefore, he applied for caste certificate before respondent No. 4-Tehsildar, Kiccha but caste certificate is not being issued to the petitioner.

(3.) Learned Counsel for the petitioner submitted that father of the petitioner is living in the State of Uttarakhand since 1985. He also submitted that petitioner was born and brought up in the State of Uttarakhand and from his childhood he studied in State of Uttarakhand. Thus, it cannot be said that petitioner is not original resident of State of Uttarakhand. He submitted that caste certificate is urgently required by the petitioner He further submitted that petitioner applied for the caste certificate before Tehsildar, Kiccha but the Tehsildar illegally rejected the same. Learned Counsel for the petitioner relied on paragraph 7 of the judgment given by the Division Bench of this Court in writ petition No. 316 of 2008 (S/B) in which this Court has observed that for defining expression "original resident" one aspect which can be taken in constructing the interpretation is to include the period of residence of 15 years so as to connote the purpose and meaning of the expression "original resident". He argued that the action of the respondents in denying the caste certificate to the petitioner is not only illegal but also arbitrary.