SUBHASH KRISHNA HAJARE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the Petitioner has challenged the legality and validity of the order dated 3rd March 1988 passed by the Scrutiny Committee and the judgment and order dated 23rd December 1988 passed by the Respondent No.3 in Appeal preferred by the Petitioner.

(2.) THE Petitioner claims to be a Mahadeo Koli, a Scheduled tribe. He was selected for the post of P.S.I. from the category of Scheduled Tribe and was sent to Police Training College, Nasik for basic training course of P.S.I. At the relevant time, after successful training, the Petitioner was posted as P.S.I. in Bombay. The Petitioner was discharged from his service on 20th June 1983. The reason for this action was that the Scrutiny Committee after scrutinising the documents produced before it, concluded that the Petitioner did not belong to Mahadeo Koli, a Scheduled Tribe but belonged to 'Koli' caste which is categorised under O.B.C. Thus, his caste claim based on the Caste Certificate dated 19th April 1982 obtained from the Executive Magistrate, Indapur was invalidated by the Scrutiny Committee. In these circumstances, the Petitioner filed a writ petition being Writ Petition No.2249 of 1983 in this Court alongwith several other petitions of identical nature. The Writ Petitions, including the Petitioner's writ Petition, were disposed of by remanding back all the matters to the Scrutiny Committee for fresh enquiry. The Petitioner was directed to file necessary documents and other material on which he wanted to rely, within the time stipulated in the said order before the Scrutiny Committee. The Scrutiny Committee, on 6th December 1986, called upon the Petitioner to furnish further documents and other material on which he wanted to rely. Thus, the Petitioner alongwith the papers pertaining to his writ petition and other writ petitions which were before this Court earlier, produced extracts of various other documents including documents pertaining to his qualification also. Subsequently, the Petitioner submitted further documents viz. zerox copies of school leaving certificate of his maternal uncle Atmaram and school leaving certificate of his paternal uncle Tukaram. The Petitioner had also submitted zerox copies of other documents viz. school leaving certificate of his father Krishna Ganpat Hajare and school leaving certificate of himself. In the said school leaving certificate of the Petitioner's father, the entry made against item 'Caste' at serial No.2, in 'Hindu - Mahadeo Koli'.

(3.) WE are aware of limitations of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. In fact, the Supreme Court in the matter of Kumari Madhuri Patil and another v/s Additional Commissioner, Tribunal Development and others, reported in A.I.R. 1995 S.C. 94 inter alia held as follows:-