ORDER :

1. This Writ Petition is filed to declare the action of the respondents 2 and 3 in not digitalizing the permanent community certificates of the petitioners herein, even though the said certificates are valid as on today, as arbitrary and illegal.

2. The present Writ Petition is filed by 20 petitioners who are said to be permanent residents of Rampachodavaram. Their case is that they belong to Valmiki community which is recognized as a Scheduled Tribe community under the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950; the petitioners’ ancestor by name Dabba Yegulaiah lived in Tantikonda village, Rajavommangi Mandal, East Godavari district and the petitioners are the legal heirs of the said person who is their first ancestor; the first petitioner’s great grandfather’s brother’s name is Dabba Swamy and his name and his wife’s names were registered in the birth register of 1942 in which their caste was mentioned as “Valmikulu”; petitioners submitted revenue records which are prior to 1950 to the third respondent to prove their caste; first petitioner and other petitioners got selected for various Government jobs under ST quota and in the year 2002 the then Mandal Revenue Officer issued permanent Valmiki (ST) caste certificates to the petitioners 1 to 3 after enquiry and the petitioners 5, 7 and 11 were also issued the said certificates in 1998, 1999 and 2011 and all the other petitioners have got valid community certificates except the minor petitioners; some of the relatives of the petitioners whose surname is “Dubba” also obtained Scheduled Tribe community certificates and in the year 2008 the then Tahsildar issued First Generation in Education Candidate Certificate dated 27.02.2008, wherein he had categorically admitted that the first petitioner and his family members belong to Valmiki (Scheduled Tribe) community; due to digitalization of records, petitioners need digitalized community certificates, but the third respondent is not digitalizing the permanent community certificates of the petitioners through Meeseva, which is arbitrary and illegal. Hence, the Writ Petition.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners also relied upon the orders passed by this Court in WP No.17560 of 2015, dated 18.06.2015, W.P.No.958 of 2017, dated 01.11.2018 and W.P.No.2925 of 2021 dated 08.02.2021.

4. Counter affidavit is filed by the third respondent Tahsildar stating, inter alia, that the caste certificate produced by the eighth petitioner namely Smt. Dabba Emina Swetha, D/o Augusteen Wylliamsis was examined and the details of the said certificate are not found in the register which is being maintained for issuance of caste certificates since 2011; the serial number mentioned in the said certificate is not tallying with the register and the eighth petitioner has produced fake and fabricated certificate before this Court and sought digitalization of the same; so far as writ petitioners 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 are concerned, they never obtained caste certificates till now; the copy of birth register of the year 1942 produced by the petitioner is suspicious and the same could not be traced in the office; the office seal and stamp of Tahsildar is not matching with the seal used during 2010 and 2011; the birth extract of Thantikonda village for the year 1939 show the name of Dabba Sundara Rao and Pentamma, wherein their caste is mentioned as “Mala” and the birth extract of Balijapadu village of Rajavommangi Mandal for the year 1954, where the surname Dabba is found is described as ‘Mala’ community; in view of the complaints given by other Scheduled Tribe community people, the caste certificates of the relatives whose surname is “Dabba” are pending before the District Level Scrutiny Committee and yet to be finalized; as the petitioners in WP No.2925 of 2021 have produced fake and fabricated certificates, a review petition has been filed against the orders in WP No.2925 of 2021 and the order passed in the said Writ Petition was reviewed