JUDGMENT

S.B. SINHA, J :

1. Leave granted.

2. Whether a co-employee of the respondent No. 1 who was working as a Field Officer with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board can maintain an independent special leave questioning the judgment of a High Court setting aside an order of the Schedule Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee is the question involved herein.

3. Before, however, we advert thereto, we may notice the admitted factual matrix of the matter. Respondent No. 1 claims himself to be a member of Schedule Tribe being belonging to "Halba" tribe notified in terms of the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950. Respondent No. 1 and his family members are highly educated. The caste of his father in the school records was shown as "Koshti" whereas the caste of his uncle was also shown as "Koshti" which was, however, later on corrected as "Halba". One of his cousins Ku. Sandhya Manohar Bhivapurkar, daughter of the uncle of the respondent No. 1, was also granted a certificate as belonging to the "Halba" community.

4. An intricate question as to whether "Koshti" is a sub-caste of "Halba" or "Halbi" came up for consideration before a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court