The court emphasized the need for concrete evidence and vigilance inquiry before rejecting a caste claim based on a blood relative's validity certificate.

JUDGMENT

S.G.MEHARE, J. - Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent of the parties heard finally at the admission stage.

2. The caste claim of the petitioner belonging to Mannervarlu Scheduled Tribe is invalidated by the impugned order dtd. 30/6/2018.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner would argue that rejection of the caste claim of the petitioner without holding the caste claim of near relative obtained by playing fraud cannot be invalidated. There was no evidence before the scrutiny committee that the word 'lu' was added at the last of the caste by the petitioner herself. There was absolutely no evidence before the vigilance cell that certificate dtd. 17/5/1972 was forge. The vigilance cell did not record the statement of the president of the municipality to find out the genuineness of the certificate dtd. 17/5/1972. In the absence of adding the word 'lu' to the caste would not lead to an irresistible conclusion that the said word was added by the petitioner. There was no evidence of handwriting expert before the caste scrutiny committee to prove that the word 'lu' was subsequently added. The school entry of the real uncle of the petitioner namely Mohan Gangadhar Birkale with Zilla Parishad School Shivangaon is shown as Kolam Mannervarlu cannot be considered as contra entry. The person namely Lingu Koneri mentioned in khasra patrak is not the closest blood relative and also does not fall in the genealogy of the petitioner. However, the scrutiny committee has erred in believing that he is the close blood relative of the petitioner. The findings of the scrutiny committee on khasra pahani patrak of Mahadu Irba and Gunjabai Maruti are contrary to the facts.

4. It is also submitted that Kanchatwar Namdeo Narayan is not his grandfather but scrutiny committee has erroneously observed the said relation with the petitioner. The sufficient material on customs, tradition and culture of Mannervarlu community was submitted to the vigilance cell that proves the affinity test but committee has recorded the erroneous findings. To bolster his arguments, he relied on the case of Anand Vs. Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims and Others, (2012) 1 SCC 113, Sayanna Vs. State of Maharashtra and Others, (2009) 10 SCC 268, Apoorva Vinay Nichale Vs. Divisional Caste Certificate Committee No.1 and Others, 2010 (6) Mh.LJ 401, J. Chitra Vs. District Collector and Chairman State Level Vigilance Committee, Tamil Nadu and Others, 2021 (9) SCC 811, Mahesh Pralhadrao Lad Vs. State of Maharashtra and Others, 2009 (2) Mh.L.J. 90, Raju Ramsing Vasave Vs. Mahesh Deorao Bhivapurkar and others, 2008 (9) SCC 54, Bhaiya Ram Munda Vs. Anirudh Patar, 1971 AIR (SC) 2533, Sunil Hiraman Thakur Vs. State of Maharashtra and Others, 2021 (5) Mh.L.J. 512, Anil Shivram Bandawar Vs. District Caste Certificate Verification committee and another, 2021 (5) Mh. LJ 345. He also relied on the judgment passed by this Court at Principal Seat in Writ Petition No.5349 of 2019 in case of Nikhil Suryakant Padalwar Vs. State of Maharashtra through Secretary Tribal Development Department and Others dtd. 3/3/2022.

5. Per contra, learned AGP Shri S.P. Tiwari for the State has vehemently argued that no caste validity based on the blood relative shall be granted when the caste validity of blood relative is under suspicion and obtained by suppression of fact. He also argued that there is crystal clear evidence of interpolation of the record of the caste by adding the word 'lu'. The scrutiny committee has the power to call back or cancel the caste certificate issued if obtained by playing a fraud. The caste scrutiny committee under Rule 7 of Caste Certificate Act, 2000 has power to confiscate and cancel the false caste certificate either suo moto or otherwise. It has the power to call for the record of the person who has obtained the certificate falsely and inquire into the correctness of such certificate and if the committee is of the opinion that certificate wa