SUJIT VASANT PATIL Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Writ Petition has been placed before us because the Division Bench of this Court has referred following three questions for consideration to the Full Bench by order dated 30-1-2004. (1) Whether in the matter of scrutiny and verification of the caste certificate and/or the caste claims of candidates elected to the local self-government, the procedure laid down by the Apex Court in Kum. Madhuri Patil's case so also the procedure prescribed by the resolution dated 1st January 1998, 19th April 1999 and 25th January 2000 could have any application even before coming in force of act No. XXIII of 2001 for the reason that local Se1f-Government Acts were holding field and more so in view of the bar contained in article 243-O and 243-ZG of the Constitution of India and other statutory provisions contained in the Local self-government Act providing for a remedy of an Election petition? (2) Whether the provision contained in Act no. XXIII of 2001 are repugnant to the scheme flowing from the provisions contained in amending Act No. XI of 2002 and XXIV of 2000 and the other relevant provisions contained in parent Local Self Government Act? (3) Whether the provisions contained in Act no. XXIII of 2001 are in conflict with the constitutional mandate contained in Article 243-0 (b) and 243-ZG (b) of the Constitution of India?

(2.) NOW, for the purpose of considering the first question, it becomes necessary to refer to the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Kumari madhuri patil and another v/s. Addl. commissioner. Iribal Development and others. (1994) 6 SCC 241. In that judgment the Supreme Court noted that the constitution permits reservation of seats in services under the State as also in Schools and collages for persons belonging to the Scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribes and also after referring the provisions of Articles 341 and 342 of the constitution, where under the Scheduled Caste and scheduled Tribes have been declared, the Supreme court noted in paragraph 9 of the judgment thus:-

(3.) THE Division Bench has referred to the government Resolution dated 1-1-1998 in its order. Perusal of the Government Resolution dated 1-1-1998 shows that the State Government in that Resolution first noted that committees have been constituted in various regions of the State for the purpose of scrutinising the social status certificate issued in relation to the persons claiming to be the members of Scheduled Castes, Nomadic Tribes, Other backward Classes etc. It is noted that those committees so far have been scrutinising the caste certificates which have been used either for getting employment under the State or for getting admission in educational institution. It is further stated that in the Local Self Government seats have been reserved for candidates belonging to the scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Nomadic Tribes etc. and against these seats persons get elected on the basis of false social status certificate and therefore it becomes necessary that the social status certificates which are used by persons for contesting the elections to seats under the Local self-government should also be scrutinised by the scrutiny committee. Therefore, it was provided that after completion of the process of election, the collector of each district within a period of 15 days shall send social status certificate used by the elected candidate from the reserved constituency to the scrutiny committee for verification and that the scrutiny committee shall complete the process of verification within a period of 45 days and communicate its decision to the Collector.