Employment obtained on the basis of a false caste claim should be canceled to allow the post to be filled by a legitimate candidate entitled to reservation.

Heard counsel for the parties.

2. We have no hesitation in upholding the conclusion reached by the Caste Scrutiny Committee, which is essentially founded on the documents relied by the petitioner "himself'. One of the documents plainly describes the caste of the petitioner as 'Hindu Koshti'. The petitioner having relied on that document cannot be heard to claim that he belongs to 'Halba-Halbi' Community, which alone is notified as Scheduled Tribe in the State of Maharashtra.

3. To get over this position, the learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the decision of the Committee will have to be overturned on the ground that the Police Vigilance Cell report was not supplied to the petitioner, which was mandatory. Even this submission does not impress LIS. The Caste Scrutiny Committee has positively recorded in the order that the enquiry report and the documents obtained by the Police Vigilance Cell were sent to the candidate along with the notice of hearing by the Committee, but he chose to remain absent. Assuming that there is some merit in the stand taken on behalf of the petitioner that the relevant reports were not received by the petitioner, the fact remains that the petitioner had himself relied on one of the documents which describes his caste as, Hindu Koshti and not as 'Halba' Tribe. The Committee, amongst other materials available before it, proceeded to invalidate the caste claim of the petitioner on the basis of the said document. We, therefore, find no reason to take exception to the order, which is impugned 10 this petition.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner would then contend that atleast the alternate relief claimed by the petitioner to quash and set aside the order of termination passed by respondent No.2/RBJ dated 25-72007 and to direct respondent No.2 to reinstate the petitioner in service be granted, invalidation of his caste claim notwithstanding. According to the petitioner, he was in service since 1978 and came to be terminated by the order dated 25-7-2007 due to invalidation of his caste certificate. Strong reliance is placed on the dictum of the Apex Court in the case of State of Maharashtra Vs. Milind and others, reported in 2001(1)Mh.L.J. 1:[2001(1) ALL MR 573 (S.C.)], to buttress this contention. However, what is glossed over by the learned counsel for the petitioner is the latest decision of the Apex Court in the case of Union of India Vs. Dattatraya Namdeo Mendhekar and others, reported in 2008(2) Mh.L.J. 720: [2008(3) ALL MR 441 (S.C.)]. The dictum of the Apex Court in the latter decision does not permit us to accede to the request of the petitioner as claimed by way of alternate relief. The counsel for the petitioner, however, made a fervent attempt to distinguish the judgment of the Apex Court in Dattatraya's case. According to him, the ratio of that judgment can be invoked only if the certificate relied on by the petitioner was found to be fabricated or fraudulent.

5. The argument though attractive will have to be rejected. In the case of Dattatraya, it is noticed that the respondent therein was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in G. B. Pant Hospital, New Delhi, on his claim that he belonged to Scheduled Tribe-Halba. He joined duty on 20-9-1990. However, when his caste claim was invalidated and the Committee found that he did not belong to 'Halba' Tribe (Scheduled Tribe), the Ministry terminated the services of the respondent therein for falsely claiming to belong to 'Halba' Tribe. Even, in the present case, the petitioner approached respondent No.2 with the claim that he belongs to 'Halba' Tribe. In support of that claim, the petitioner relied on the caste certificate, which mentions the petitioner's tribe as 'Halba' tribe. However, during the scrutiny of the caste claim, the documents relied on by the petitioner himself revealed that he belonged to 'Koshti' community, which is not a part of 'Halba' Tribe. In other words, even in the present case the clai