NATENDRA KUMAR SONDHIYA Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) INVOKING extra-ordinary jurisdiction of this Court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for issuance of writ in the nature of certiorari for quashment of the order dated 14-12-2001, passed by the State Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as "tribunal") in Original Application No. 1878/1996, rejecting the claim of the petitioner to be given appointment under the quota reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

(2.) A brief resume of the facts required to be stated for disposal of this petition is as follows :-The petitioner was selected for undergoing training in the Pat-wari Training School, Rewa from 1-9-1994 to 30-54995. After completion of training, he was subjected to written test in which he was declared successful. Many of the persons, included in the list of such candidates have been given appointment as Patwari but no such appointment has been given to the petitioner. The petitioner claims that he is "sondhiya" by caste and belongs to "majhi" Scheduled Tribe.

(3.) THE petitioner filed an original application before the "tribunal" wherein it was prayed that the respondents may be directed to issue orders appointing the petitioner to the post of Patwari. He based this claim on the certificates given by Naib Tehsildar and the Member of Parliament, Rewa. This application was combated by the respondents. It was put forth by them that the petitioner was selected for the training in the Scheduled Tribe category on certain conditions, one of those being that in case of production of false certificate the admission would stand cancelled. In the return submitted by the respondents before the Tribunal it was contended that the petitioner does not belong to the Scheduled Tribe but he belongs to the "other Backward Classes" therefore, he was not entitled for the appointment. Reference was also made in the return to the circular, dated 1-6-1995, enclosed as Annexure R-l in the original application in which it has been notified to all the departments that 'sondhiya' sub-caste is not recognized as belonging to 'majhi' community, therefore, they cannot be treated as persons belonging to Scheduled Tribes.