GOPAL Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is challenging the order of the respondent - scrutiny committee passed in a proceeding under Sec. 6 of the Maharashtra Act No. XXIII of 2001 (Act), thereby confiscating and cancelling the petitioner's tribe certificate of Thakur scheduled tribe by resorting to the provisions of Sec. 7(1) of that Act.

(2.) We have heard both the sides finally at the stage of admission.

(3.) The learned advocate for the petitioner would submit that the whole approach of the committee is cynical and pedantic. It has started with the assumption that the petitioner's claim is false and bogus. In the process, it has conveniently discarded the validity certificate of one Bhagwat Pandharinath Garud even though it was issued in the year 2001 and he has filed a specific affidavit corroborating the petitioner's version when he produced his validity certificate in support of the claim describing Bhagwat as his second degree cousin parental uncle. Bhagwat in his affidavit expressly stated on oath about petitioner being his second degree nephew. There was nothing before the committee to discard his validity merely by entertaining the suspicion that the genealogy furnished by the petitioner did not demonstrate Bhagwat.