JANARDHAN VASANT YADAV Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner herein is a Municipal corporator elected to Respondent No. 2-Municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai from a Ward reserved for, the Backward Class candidates. Respondent no-1 is the Additional Municipal Commissioner of respondent No. 2. The Caste Certificate Scrutiny committee (hereinafter referred to as the "scrutiny Committee") appointed by Respondent no. 4-State of Maharashtra, by its decision/order dated 23rd/29th July 2002, cancelled the Caste certificate on the basis of which the Petitioner had contested the election to Respondent no. 2-Municipal Corporation. This order cancelled the certificate of validity issued to the petitioner. Consequently, Respondent No. 1 issued an order dated 14th August 2002 stating that as a result of the said order of the Scrutiny committee, Section 16 (1c) (a) of the Mumbai municipal Corporation Act, 1888 (hereinafter referred to as the "mmc Act") will come into application and the Petitioner shall be deemed to have vacated his office as a Corporator from the date of the declaration given by the Scrutiny committee. Respondent No. 3 to this Petition is the Collector of Mumbai.

(2.) It is this order dated 14th August 2002, issued by the 1st Respondent-Additional Municipal commissioner that is challenged in this Petition. It is material to note that the Petitioner has not challenged the order of the Scrutiny Committee dated 23rd/29th July 2002 mentioned earlier. When this Petition was admitted on 4th September 2002, a stay was granted against the enforcement of the impugned order. The order of the Scrutiny committee had been passed on the complaint of one mr. Baban Sakharam Gaonkar. After admission of this Petition, this Mr. Gaonkar filed an application seeking to join him as the Respondent in this Petition. We have allowed him to intervene in the matter and have heard his Counsel along with the Counsel appearing for all other parties.

(3.) Brief facts leading to this Petition are as follows:- the Petitioner applied for issuance of a caste Certificate to Respondent No. 3-Collector on 28.12.2001. The Deputy Collector, Mumbai, issued him a Caste Certificate on 31st December 2001 certifying that he belonged to the caste "hindu ahir", which was recognised as one of the Other backward Classes (O. B. C. ) other than Sindhi at sr. No. 198 under the Government Resolution (GR) dated 5th October 1979 issued by the Social welfare Department of Respondent No. 4. The scrutiny Committee also issued him a Validity certificate on 8th January 2002 certifying that he belonged to the caste "hindu Ahir" recognised as o. B. C. The Petitioner produced these certificates for the purposes of contesting the election to the ward reserved for the Backward Class candidates. He contested from Ward No. 25 (Jijamata Udyan, bhyculla Market Area) which Ward was reserved for backward Class candidate. The Petitioner was elected in that election wherein he defeated the above-referred Mr. Baban Gaonkar and other candidates. This Mr. Baban Gaonkar filed an election Petition bearing No. 59 of 2002 to challenge the Petitioner's election on the ground that he did not belong to the O. B. C. category. That Petition is pending for its decision.