A THANGAPANDIAN Vs. REVENUE DIVISIONAL OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE father of the petitioner, by name, Arumugam of Perundurai Town and Taluk, Erode District had made an application to the Revenue Divisional Officer, Dharapuram, Erode District, for issuance of Community Certificate in favour of his son A.Thangapandian, who is the petitioner herein, certifying himself belonging to Mudugar Community, which is notified to be a Scheduled Tribe Community. Accordingly,a report was called for from the Tahsildar, Gangeyam who in turn forwarded his report dated 11.06.1997 to the Revenue Divisional Officer, Dharapuram. In the report, it was stated that on enquiry, it came to light that none of the person living in Kolathupalayam Village, Dharapuram belong to Mudugar Community. On considering the above said report of the Tahsildar, the Revenue Divisional Officer by impugned order dated 08.07.1997 refused for issuance of community certificate to the petitioner and consequently rejected the application. Hence, the present writ petition.

(2.) FROM the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition, it could be seen that the father of the petitioner had produced as many as 14 documents at the time of enquiry. The details of the documents are furnished here below for reference:-

(3.) WE have considered the submissions of the respective counsel. In our opinion, the impugned order suffers from infirmity on the face of it and accordingly, the same is liable to be set aside. In matters of issue community certificate, of course, the competent authority is entitled to make a local verification to satisfy himself, as to whether the applicant belongs to a particular community or not. However, that cannot be the only test to find out the genuineness of the claim. In the event, a claim is made on the basis of the fact that the applicant's father was issued with a community certificate certifying himself belonging to Schedule Tribe Community and that when the certificate is not assailed in the manner known to law, such document would be a valid document for the concerned authority to rely upon and issue a community certificate. Equally, the ancient documents that too three documents, which came into existence much prior to the independence of India, could be considered to be the genuine documents and if those documents refer the community of the individual concerning, it would certainly be the valid piece of evidence for issuance of community certificate. On the facts, there is no dispute that the petitioner has produced S.S.L.C. Book, School Transfer Certificate and Extract from the Service Register belonging to his father, which came into existence during the year 1968 itself. WE do not find any reason, as to why those documents have been discarded and rejected, while the application for issuance of community certificate was considered. Moreover, the first respondent-Revenue Divisional Officer has not even cared to refer to those documents showing his bent of mind in not issuing the community certificate. The question as to whether the service records, S.S.L.C. Book and School Transfer Certificate of the father of the petitioner and the connected records could be the basis for issuance of community certificate was in fact considered by the Apex Court in State of Bihar and others V. Sumit Anand (2005(12) Supreme Court Cases 248) and the Apex Court was not inclined to interfere with order of the High Court directing the authority for issuance of community certificate on the basis of such documents.