SHWETA KESARINATH SHIVDIKAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner claims to be a member of Mahadeo Koli, which is a Scheduled Tribe, and accordingly, she obtained the Tribe Certificate which was referred to the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee. The Scrutiny Committee, by the impugned order dated 22.2.2007, rejected her clam. By this petition, she seeks to set aside the said order and direction to issue validation certificate to her. It may be noted that earlier this petition was dismissed by this Court by the order dated 14.8.2007. That order was challenged by the petitioner in the Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No. 6146 of 2008. The Hon'ble Supreme Court remanded the matter back to this Court to hear the parties, particularly in view of the two conflicting entries in the Birth Certificate and the school record of her grandfather.

(2.) Heard the learned Counsel for the parties. Perused the record. On perusal of the record, we find that in the school record, her uncles Suryakant and Chandrakant, aunts Shashikala and Hemlata and her father Kesarinath were shown to be Hindus. The School record does not show that they belong to Mahadeo Koli Tribe. Krishnabai Shrawan Shivdikar, aunt of her father, was shown as 'Koli'. The school record shows that caste of her grandfather Raghunath Shrawan was initially shown as "Koli" at the time of admission in the Nursery School, but later on, at the time of admission in the Primary School, his caste was shown as "Koli Mahadeo". Thus, except one entry in respect of her grandfather, all the records in respect of other relatives, reveal that they were either Koli or Hindu. Koli is the other Backward Caste,but admittedly not a Scheduled Tribe and it is not a part of "Koli Mahadeo" Tribe.

(3.) It may be noted that in the school record, the date of birth of her grandfather Raghunath was shown as 2.10.1931. However, there is also a Birth Certificate issued by the Public Health Department of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, from the Births Register. It shows his date of birth to be 5.11.1931. Father's name of child was shown as Shrawan Mangali and mother's name was Budibai. There is address as H-No.39, Sewree Koliwada, which is a part of Mumbai. The occupation of the father was shown as fishing and the caste was recorded as "Son Koli".