The central legal point established in the judgment is the importance of genuine documents and validity certificates in establishing a caste claim, and the principle that once a caste claim has been validated, the validation should extend to close relatives as well.

JUDGMENT

M.S.Jawalkar, J. - Heard. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of the learned counsel appearing for the parties.

2. The petitioner claims to belong to 'Halbi' Schedule Tribe. The Sub-Divisional Officer Revenue, achalpur had issued a Caste Certificate to the petitioner as belongs to 'Halbi'. The petitioner has completed B.Sc. from College run by Jagdamba Mahavidyalaya, achalpur City and presently is doing PG Course. The petitioner had sent her Caste Claim for verification to the respondent-Schedule Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee (in short, ' the Committee') through the College alongwith relevant documents and validity certificates. as her caste claim was pending since 2016, the petitioner through her father sent representation dated 30-03-2019, 03-01-2019, 03-03-2020 and 23-02-2021 requesting to decide the caste claim as early as possible. The petitioner in her representation also stated that, there are 5 validities in the family. The petitioner, therefore, requested the respondent - Committee to issue Validity Certificate in view of the validities in the family, inspite of it, the respondent-Committee was not decided the caste claim and invalidated the caste claim of the petitioner. Presently, the petitioner is challenging the order dated 22/07/2021 of the respondent - Committee invalidating the caste claim of the petitioner.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that although there are several validity certificates placed on record, the respondent - Committee without any reason, discarded the same.

4. The petitioner further submits that the 'Halbi' Schedule Tribe is recognized as Schedule Tribe in the State of Maharashtra and included at Sr. No. 19 in the Constitutional Schedule Tribe Order, 1950. The show cause notice was sent to the petitioner alongwith the copy of the Police Vigilence Report dated 09/05/2018 by the respondent - Committee seeking explanation on the said report. The petitioner submitted the detailed reply on the same, stating that, as Police Vigilence in its report came up with some 'Koshti' documents, they are not from the petitioner's family and therefore, there is no relation with these documents and thus the said documents cannot be relied upon. There are 5 validities in the family of the petitioner, which the petitioner placed before the respondent Committee.

5. The petitioner submits that the respondent - Committee has erred in invalidating the caste claim of the petitioner for 'Halba/Halbi' Schedule Tribe Category. The findings recorded by the respondent - Committee are based upon totally irrelevant consideration and factors. It is not the case of the respondent - Committee that the documents placed on record are bogus, false, non-existent or fabricated. all the documents are pertaining to the period prior to 1950 and onwards, unequivocally and undisputedly indicate the claim of the petitioner as 'Halba/Halbi' Schedule Tribe. When the documents on record conclusively establish that the petitioner belongs to 'Halba/Halbi' Schedule Tribe, then it is not permissible for the respondent - Committee to go into affinity test and to reject the claim of the petitioner. The Committee failed to appreciate that the petitioner originally hails from achalpur city which is border area of Melghat and is earmarked for 'Halba/Halbi' Tribals in the map of the Tribal area prepared by the State Government of Maharashtra. The respondent - Committee considered the irrelevant documents and has not given consideration to the genuine documents and also validity certificates which are issued in the family. The allegation is that the documents showing caste as 'Koshti' was suppressed by the applicant/petitioner. However, as those documents do not belong to the petitioner's family, then there is no question of suppression. The oldest documents in respect of the petitioner'