ASHWINI PRAKASH DEVRE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Learned AGP waives service.

(2.) By resorting to Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Sec. 7(2) of the Maharashtra Act No. XXIII of 2001 ('Act') and the rules framed thereunder, the petitioner is challenging the judgment and order of respondent no. 2, which is a committee constituted under that Act for validation of the scheduled tribe certificates, refusing to validate her 'Koli Mahadev' scheduled tribe certificate and directing its confiscation and cancellation.

(3.) The learned advocate for the petitioner would vehemently submit that in spite of conducting vigilance enquiry, no contrary record could be traced and none has been referred to in the entire impugned order. The record collected during vigilance enquiry, is only favourable record wherein petitioner's blood relatives have been described as 'Mahadev Koli' or 'Koli Mahadev'. The conduct of the committee in discarding this record only because it is of recent period and there is no evidence of pre-constitutional period, is perverse and arbitrary. He would submit that there could not have been insistence for producing pre-constitutional record. The issue has been consistently addressed by this Court wherein it has been held that there should not be insistence to produce old record. He would cite decisions in the matters of Vaijnath S/o Janardhan Zunjkar Vs. Scrutiny Committee for Verification of Tribe Claims, Aurangabad and another; 2006(3) Mh.L.J. 536 and Yogesh S/o Madhavrao Kakulte Vs. State of Maharashtra and another; 2006(3) Mh.L.J. 691.