SUDHIR BATHAM Vs. M.P. STATE LEVEL COMMITTEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India for quashing the report dated 27.3.2002 of respondent No.1 State Level Committee (hereinafter to be referred to as the Committee) and subsequent orders of the respondents No.3 and 4 based thereon and for a direction to respondent No.2 Maulana Azad College of Technology, Bhopal to reinstate the petitioners in service with all consequential benefits.

(2.) THE petitioners were the employees of Maulana Azad College of Technology, Bhopal. Petitioner No.1 Sudhir Batham was appointed on 9.8.1988. Petitioner No.2 Ranjeet Singh was appointed on 3.3.1992 and petitioner No.3 Manmohan Rajak was appointed on 18.31992. They were confirmed on 23.2.1996. They belong to dhobi caste. They secured employment as Scheduled Caste candidates on the basis of the certificates issued in their favour by the competent authorities. They claim that they and their forefathers were residents of Bhopal. dhobis residing in Bhopal, Sehore and Raisen districts are included in the list of Scheduled Castes given in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 issued under Article 341 of the Constitution of India. The services of the petitioners were terminated by order dated 20.4.2000. It was done on the report dated 20.1.2000 of the Collector, Bhopal that the caste certificates issued in favour of the petitioners are false and fictitious. They challenged the termination order by filing Writ Petition No. 2666 of 2000 before this Court. During the pendency of that writ petition, the Collector, Bhopal communicated to the respondent No.2 Maulana Azad College of Technology that the caste certificate issued in favour of petitioner No. 1 Sudhir Batham is genuine and he belongs to Scheduled Caste. It was further reported by the Collector that the enquiry in respect of the caste certificates of petitioners No.2 and 3 Ranjeet Singh and Manmohan Rajak was under process. By order dated 26.6.2001 in the writ petition, the committee was directed to verify the caste certificates issued to the petitioners after giving them an opportunity of hearing as per decision of the Supreme Court in Madhuri Patil v. Additional Commissioner AIR 1995 SC 94. The committee was directed to decide the controversy within three months. It was directed that in case the committee finds that the petitioners belong to Scheduled Caste, they "shall be reinstated in service", subject to any order of the competent authority/Court.

(3.) THE Committee took into account the detailed and well considered report of the Superintendent of Police, Bhopal and also the two subsequent reports of the Collector, Bhopal confirming that the petitioners are residents of Bhopal and their parents also resided there but did not agree with them. The Committee discarded the reports of the S.P. and the Collector and also the affidavits and the documents submitted by the petitioners. The Committee accepted that the petitioners were born at Bhopal and their primary education took place at Bhopal. But according to the Committee there was no material to show that the parents or the forefathers of the petitioners were residing at Bhopal in the year 1950 and therefore, the committee was of the view that the petitioners cannot be held as belonging to Scheduled Caste. From the report of the committee it appears that a fresh report dated 22.1.2002 (fourth one) was called from Collector, Bhopal in which it is stated that the primary education of petitioner Ranjeet Singh took place at Indore whereas according to the investigation and enquiry done by the S.P. he was born at Bhopal and had his primary education also in Gandhi Vidya Niketan Higher Secondary School, Bhopal and then he went for further education to Indore. The Collector, Bhopal in his report dated 22.2.2002 does not refute that Ranjeet Singh was born at Bhopal. It is vaguely stated that he had his primary education at Indore but he does not give the name of the school (as per para 12(3) of the Committee's report).