JUDGMENT :

Sunil B. Shukre, J.

Heard. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith by consent of the learned counsel for the parties.

2. This is a case wherein a caste claim of the petitioner has been refused under Sections 3 and 4 of the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of Caste) Certificate Act 2000 read with Rule 4 of the Maharashtra Scheduled Tribes (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Certificate Rules, 2003 (in short referred to as "Act, 2000 & Rules 2003").

3. The petitioner belongs to a distressed family headed by a single mother. The petitioner's mother got married to one Prashant Sakharam Ambre, the father of the petitioner on 8th August, 1996. Petitioner was born during the wedlock on 21st July, 1997. Soon thereafter there were serious differences between the father and the mother of the petitioner and they culminated into dissolution of marriage in the year 2003. Well before that, the petitioner had left her matrimonial house and she had started residing in her parental house. In the year 2003, there was a Court's o