The High Power Certification Scrutiny Committee lacked jurisdiction to revoke the caste certificate as it was not referred by the District Level Certificates Verification Committee or by the State Government, violating the statutory provisions.

ORDER :

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1.Invoking jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner herein seeks to challenge the legality, validity and correctness of the order dated 7.9.2019 (Annexure-P/1) by which the petitioner’s caste has been revoked by the High Power Certification Scrutiny Committee under Section 7 of the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes & Other Backward Classes (Regulation of Social Status Certification) Act, 2013 (henceforth ‘the Act, 2013’).

2. The aforesaid challenge has been made on the following factual backdrop.

3. The petitioner was appointed on the post of Second Grade Clerk by the Collector, Surguja, vide order dated 18.1.1982 and thereafter he was promoted on the post of Assistant Grade-II. The petitioner was further promoted on the post of Auditor and vide order dated 22.3.2018, he was promoted on the post of Superintendent, Land Records. During his tenure, a caste certificate was issued in favour of the petitioner stating that he belongs to ‘Gond’ community. The said certificate was verified by the District Level Certificates Verification Committee under Section 6 of the Act, 2013. The said Committee issued a certificate (Annexure-P/8) stating that the petitioner belongs to the ST community, after due enquiry under Section 6 of the Act, 2013. However, the said Committee did not refer the matter to the High Power Certification Scrutiny Committee for further scrutiny. The information concerning the social status of the petitioner was communicated to the Deputy Commissioner, office of Commissioner, vide letter dated 12.7.2017 stating that the verification certificate has been issued on 17.7.2014. As such, the certificate dated 17.7.2014 on the basis of social status certificate dated 6.6.2014 has attained finality. In the meanwhile, during the pendency of said enquiry before the District Level Certificates Verification Committee, one Kunj Bihari Singh Paikra, President, Sarv Adivasi Samaj, Surguja made a complaint to the Commissioner, Surguja Division that the petitioner is not a member of the ST community, as he has obtained the said certificate by means of fraud and is getting the benefit of reservation, on the basis of which the Commissioner has got it enquired from the Collector and issued a memo on 24^th March, 2014 to the High Power Certification Scrutiny Committee for enquiry regarding the caste of the petitioner. Accordingly, an enquiry was conducted and on 7.9.2019 an order has been passed holding that the petitioner is not a member of the ST Community and the certificates dated 30.6.1976 and 6.6.2014 have been revoked, leading to filing of the present Writ Petition.

4. Shri Manoj Paranjpe, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner would submit that the High Power Certification Scrutiny Committee has no power and jurisdiction to pass order to verify the petitioner's caste, as the District Level Certificates Verification Committee has already verified it and a communication has also been issued to the employer and, therefore, by virtue of Section 7 of the Act, 2013, the High Power Certification Scrutiny Committee can enquire into the social status of Government servant only if it is referred by the District Level Certificates Verification Committee under Section 6 or by the State Government, and the Commissioner, who has referred the matter to the High Power Certification Scrutiny Committee vide Annexure-R/2 is not the State Government and, therefore, the order (Annexure-P/1) is without jurisdiction and without any authority of law and the s