RAJENDRA RAMCHANDRA SONAWANE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE, returnable forthwith in all the three petitions. The learned Counsel for respective respondents waive service. Taken up for final hearing by consent.

(2.) SOME vacancies in the office of the respondent No. 3 were reserved for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Tribes. The petitioners, in all these petitions, made application for appointment to the posts reserved for the Scheduled Tribes claiming that they belonged to "tokare Koli", which is a notified scheduled tribe. The petitioners, produced the caste/tribe certificates obtained from the Tahsildar and Executive Magistrate, Jalgaon, between April, 1989 and July, 1989, purportedly bearing the signature of Shri Hemraj Hiraman Saraf, the then Executive Magistrate, Jalgaon.

(3.) THE petitioners were interviewed, selected and appointed by the respondent No. 3 to the posts reserved for Scheduled Tribes on the basis of the said caste/tribe certificates. The learned Counsel for the petitioners was unable to give even the approximate date of appointment, but stated that they were confirmed in the year 1998 or thereabout.