RUPALI D/O SANJAY SHINDE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA THROUGH ITS SECRETARY, TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, MANTRALAYA, MUMBAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the parties, heard finally at the stage of admission.

(2.) The petitioners, by this writ petition, assail the order passed by Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Aurangabad (R2) on 10.01.2018, whereby the tribe claim of the petitioners as members Koli Mahadev, a Scheduled Tribe, was rejected and consequential orders were passed.

(3.) Shri. S. R. Barlinge, learned advocate for the petitioners submits that, petitioner no. 1 has passed NEET examination and seeks admission in technical course whereas; petitioner no. 2 is studying in Government Engineering College at Aurangabad on the seat reserved for Scheduled Tribe. He further submits that, the petitioners' father, real uncle and real aunt have been granted validity certificates after following the due vigilance enquiry. He submits that, there are catena of judgments which lay down that, when validity certificates are issued in favour of the close paternal relatives of the petitioners, the petitioner should get validity certificate unless there is a case of fraud in obtaining validity certificate by the paternal relatives. He criticized the judgment of the Scrutiny Committee, which has placed reliance on the word Mahadev recorded after the word Koli in different ink in the school admission certificate of the petitioners' father. He submitted that, the original registers were not seen and there were two vigilance inquiries earlier in which no suspicion was expressed in respect of the said entries that those were made by alteration. He also relied on the judgment in a case of Sayanna Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors., 2010 1 AllMR 957, to submit that, there should be positive material to show that the alteration was made at the behest of the petitioner.