HARSHAL GULAB SONAWANE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition, the petitioner challenges the order dated 23.8.2009 passed by Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee (hereinafter referred to as "the Scrutiny Committee"), rejecting the claim of the petitioner as belonging to Tokre Koli tribe.

(2.) With the help of learned counsel for the petitioner, we have gone through entire order of the Scrutiny Committee as also copies of records which are annexed with the petition. In our view, the view taken by the Scrutiny Committee needs no interference for the reasons indicated below.

(3.) The documents at Sr. Nos.19 and 20 before the Scrutiny Committee were the school leaving certificate and extract of the birth register of the petitioner's father. The caste of the petitioner's father was recorded as "Suryawanshi Koli" in the school leaving certificate and his caste was recorded as "Koli" in the birth register dated 27.6.1957. It is true that these documents are post Presidential notification. However, it may be noted that despite the fact that "Koli" or "Suryawanshi Koli" tribes were not included in the list of Scheduled Tribes and though tribe "Tokre Koli" was included as a scheduled tribe, the petitioner's grand-father did not choose to record the caste of the petitioner's father as "Tokre Koli" either at the time of his birth or at the time of his entry in the school. An entry of a caste, though made after the Presidential notification and which excludes a person from the list of scheduled tribes cannot be regarded as irrelevant. Therefore, the submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner that these documents ought not have been taken into consideration by the Scrutiny Committee, cannot be accepted.