The importance of an 'Appeal' remedy for issuance of Community Certificate and the necessity of enacting a comprehensive law for issuance and verification of Community Certificates.

M.VENUGOPAL, J.

Heard both sides.

2. The Petitioner has filed the present Writ Petition praying for passing of an order by this Court in calling for the records relating to the order of rejection passed in Na.Ka.No.11807/2015/A4 dated 27.02.2017 on the file of the Respondent/Revenue Divisional Officer, Dharmapuri and to quash the same. Further, the Petitioner had prayed for issuance of direction to the respondent to issue Community Certificate to the children of the Petitioner viz., 1.J.Santhosh Kumar and 2.J.Kiruthiga that they belong to ‘Kurumans (ST) Community’ based upon the Community Certificate possessed by the close relatives namely Sakthivel, Rajendran and Saipriya of the Petitioner.

3. According to the Petitioner, she belongs to Kurumans Community which is classified as a Scheduled Tribe Community. It is further stated that in Petitioner's School Transfer Certificate, her community indicated as Kurumans (Scheduled Tribe) and also her close relatives viz., B.Sakthivel was issued with the Community Certificate by the Respondent on 18.01.1996 that he belongs to Kurumans (ST) Community and another relative viz., Saipriya was issued with the Community Certificate by the Respondent on 05.08.2015 that she belongs to Kurumans (ST) Community and the said Saipriya's father Rajendran was also issued with the Community Certificate on 26.08.1985 by the Tahsildar, Dharmapuri that he belongs to Kurumans (Scheduled Tribe) Community.

4. At the outset, it is to be pointed out that on the basis of the above documents, the Petitioner has filed an application for issuance of Community Certificate for her Son and Daughter and the said application was rejected by the Respondent by an order dated 10.07.2015. Aggrieved against the order of rejection, the Petitioner filed a Writ Petition in W.P.No.34960 of 2015 before this Court and when the matter was taken up for hearing on 02.11.2015, it was submitted by the Learned Government Advocate appearing for the Respondent that the permission may be granted to the Respondent to withdraw the order dated 10.07.2015, it was passed in complete non-application of mind. In view of the above request made by the Respondent, this Court had passed the order and the operative portion of the order which runs as follows:

“6. In view of the aforesaid submission of the Learned Government Advocate, it is ordered accordingly. Needless to state that the authority concerned is required to advert to all the documents submitted by the petitioner in support of her claim. The entire exercise shall be completed within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.”

Subsequently, the Respondent issued a notice for an enquiry on 04.01.2016, the Petitioner appeared before the Respondent and produced the following documents.

1. School Transfer Certificate of the Petitioner

2. Community Certificate of Sakthivel

3. Community Certificate of Saipriya

4. Community Certificate of Rajendran

5. Petitioner's great grandfather's land document executed on 10.06.1939 in which his community is mentioned as Kurumans. However, the Respondent had passed an order dated 27.02.2017 in Na.Ka.No.11807/2015/A4 rejecting the Petitioner's application holding that she does not belong to Kurumans (ST) Community.

5. It comes to be known that the Respondent/Revenue Divisional Officer, Dharmapuri, had passed the impugned order 27.02.2017 rejecting the Petitioner's request for issuance of Community Certificate to her Children, namely, J.Santhosh Kumar and J.Kiruthiga. Therefore, as an affected person, against the order of negativing her request for issuance of Community Certificate dated 27.02.2017, the Petitioner has filed the instant Writ Petition before this Court.

6. At this juncture, it is pertinent for this Court to make a significant mention that in G.O.(Ms).No.235 Revenue [RA3(2)] Department dated 26.06.2015, the Governme