The main legal point established in the judgment is that the Caste Scrutiny Committee has no inherent power of review under the Act of 2000 and rules framed thereunder. Additionally, the power to cancel or recall validity certificates obtained by fraud, misrepresentation, or suppression of material facts should be exercised judiciously and not as a means to repeatedly challenge the validity certificates based on recent claims.

JUDGMENT :

S.G. Chapalgaonkar, J.

1. Rule, Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of parties.

The petitioners have approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, impugning the order dated 13.9.2023 passed by the respondent no.2-Caste Scrutiny Committee, Dhule, by which the validity certificate granted in favour of the petitioners have been canceled and their caste claim for “Thakur Scheduled Tribe” has been declared as invalid and further directions are given to initiate action against petitioner no.1 under the provisions of section 10 and 11 of the Act of 2000. Further, directions are given to deposit caste certificate and caste validity certificates dated 12.1.2001 and 9.6.2000 with the Committee within a period of eight days.

2. The petitioners contend that they are belonging to “Thakur Scheduled Tribe.” Consequently, the caste claim of petitioner no.1 was submitted for verification with the Committee. The Committee vide order dated 12.1.2001 validated caste claim of the petitioner and issued certificate no.DD/TCSC/NSK/DHU-SERV-467-97. Similarly, caste claim of the petitioner no.2 had been validated by the Committee and validity certificate no. DD/TCSC/NSK/DHU/EDN-567-99/5745 had been issued in her favour by the Committee at Nashik. The Committee, was referred with the caste validity certificates of the petitioners while considering caste claim of Bhavana Yashwant Thakur. During hearing said claim, the Committee issued show cause notice to the petitioners indicating that the Committee possess the powers of cancelling the validity certificates on the ground of fraud or suppression of material facts or misrepresentation. In response to such notice petitioners submitted detailed reply to the show cause notice and also filed on record several documents justifying their caste validity for “Thakur Scheduled Tribe”. However, the Committee under impugned order cancelled/recalled the caste validity certificates after almost 20 years and directed to surrender the same. Petitioner no.1 is now retired from service. Petitioner no.2 has completed her education. According to the petitioners, the Committee had wrongly assumed jurisdiction to cancel caste validity certificates that too after more than twenty years of it’s existence. The reasons adopted by the Committee are nothing more than on assumptions, presumptions and surmises and inconsistent with voluminous record supporting caste claim of the petitioners.

3. Mr. M.R. Wagh, learned advocate appearing for the petitioners vehemently submit that the Committee could not have exercised the powers of review in absence such provisions under the Act of 2000 or rules framed thereunder. He would submit that the Division Bench of this Court in recent order dated 1.11.2023 passed in the group of writ petitions tagged with Writ Petition No.8822 of 2022 reiterated that the caste Scrutiny Committee cannot exercise suo-motto powers of review and set aside/recall the validity certificate issued earlier. Mr. Wagh, would further submit that, the caste claims of the petitioners have been considered by the then Committee in the year 2001 and, after due inquiry and investigation, validity was conferred upon them. While considering the claim of the blood relations namely Bhavana Yashwant Thakur, vague show cause notices were issued without assigning proper reasons for re-opening/re-calling of the caste validity conferred upon the petitioners. He would further submit that petitioners have not only justified the validity granted in their favour by then Committee, but also produced voluminous documents justifying their caste claim. As such, he urges that the order passed by the Committee is liable to be quashed and set aside.

4. Learned AGP vehemently supports the order passed by the Committee. He would submit that, in case validity certificate is found to be obtained by exercising fraud or misrepresentation, the Committee has adequate powers to reopen the inquiry pertaining