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2018 Supreme(Mad) 387
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
M. VENUGOPAL, P.D. AUDIKESAVALU, JJ.
The Akhil Bharathiya Adiwasi Vikas Parishad, Tamilnadu Branch, Represented by its State President C. Sanjeevi - Petitioner
Versus
The Government of Tamil Nadu, Rep by the Chief Secretary, Chennai & Others - Respondents
W.P. No. 1042 of 2017 & W.M.P. Nos. 1010, 6267, 6492, 7462, 7546, 7760, 7769, 22375, 26063 of 2017
Decided On : 08-02-2018
Advocate Appeared:
For the Petitioner: R. Vaigai, V. Vijay Shankar
For the Respondents: R. Venkataramani, K.V. Dhanapalan, S. Duraisamy, L. Chandrakumar, Su. Srinivasan, B.C. Archana Kalyanai
Headnote:
Constitution of India, 1950 – Articles 14, 16, 226 – Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 – Rule 3 of Order VIII – Relief to replace second respondent – Present writ petition has been filed by Tamil Nadu Branch of Akhil Bharathiya Adiwasi Vikas Parishad, represented by its State President Mr. C. Sanjeevi – Originally the writ petition was filed seeking the relief to replace second respondent, viz., Mr. P. Annamalai, I.A.S from the post of Chariman, State Level Scrutiny Committee and to re-constitute State Level Scrutiny Committee to be headed by senior level officer belonging to Scheduled Tribe or by neutral (non-SC) official to make verification of the claims of the members of the Scheduled Tribe/members of the association of the petitioner. – Held, If relevant evidence produced in support of the claim for Scheduled Tribe status is discarded by the State Level Scrutiny Committee, certainly the aggrieved person is entitled to impeach the same in proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution before this Court, which would suffice to examine the correctness of the claim and grant appropriate relief, where necessary. – On the other hand, the circumstance that Associations and persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes have been complaining about some persons having secured false certificates as Scheduled Tribes, cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be a ground to disqualify officials belonging to Scheduled Castes from being members of the State Level Scrutiny Committee which verifies the community certificates of the Scheduled Tribes. – In fact, acceding to such a contention, by itself, would amount to blatant discrimination and violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. – Hence, it is not possible to countenance, much less give any credence to, the unfounded allegations of the petitioner that the officials belonging to the Scheduled Castes are inimically disposed towards the Scheduled Tribes so as to entertain any real apprehension of bias against them for verifying the Scheduled Tribe community certificates. – Court do not find any merit for granting any of the reliefs sought for by the petitioner in this writ petition. – Writ Petition Dismissed
P.D. Audikesavalu, J.
1. The present writ petition has been filed by Tamil Nadu Branch of Akhil Bharathiya Adiwasi Vikas Parishad, represented by its State President Mr. C. Sanjeevi. Originally the writ petition was filed seeking the relief to replace second respondent, viz., Mr. P. Annamalai, I.A.S from the post of Chariman, State Level Scrutiny Committee and to re-constitute State Level Scrutiny Committee to be headed by senior level officer belonging to Scheduled Tribe or by neutral (non-SC) official to make verification of the claims of the members of the Scheduled Tribe/members of the association of the petitioner.
2. The petitioner by a petition bearing W.M.P.No.26063 of 2017 filed on 13.09.2017 brought to the notice of this Court that the second respondent, viz., Mr. P. Annamalai, I.A.S has been shifted out of the post of Secretary, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department and ex-officio Chairman of State Level Scrutiny Committee and as a result thereof, that part of the prayer sought for in this writ petition no longer survives. It was further submitted therein that there was necessity to constitute a separate department for welfare of the Scheduled Tribes and on that basis, by an order dated 14.09.2017, this Court permitted the petitioner to amend the prayer in the writ petition as follows:
“It is therefore prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleaded to issue a Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ or direction in the nature of writ or order by directing the respondents to form a separate department for the Tribal Welfare to be headed by a Secretary to re-constitute the State Level Scrutiny Committee to be headed by a Senior Level Officer belonging to the Scheduled Tribe or by a neutral (non SC) official to make verification of the claims of the members of the Sts/members of the petitioner association and pass such other order or orders as may be deemed fit and render justice.”
In view of the aforesaid amendment made to the reliefs sought in this writ petition, the focus in the matter is now confined to the amended prayer.
3. Before proceeding further, it needs to be stated that the respondents nos.3 to 7 who are associations of certain communities of Scheduled Tribes were impleaded as parties to the writ petition as it had been claimed in their respective applications that they were interested in the reliefs that have been sought by the petitioner in this writ petition. Further, on the petition bearing W.M.P.Nos.22375 of 2017 filed by the petitioner, the 8th and 9th respondents were added as parties to the writ petition. Having regard to the issues involved in this writ petition, this Court suo motu impleaded the 10th and 11th respondents as parties to the writ petition for effectual and complete adjudication of the matter. This Court by an order dated 09.07.2017 had appointed the erstwhile Director of Tribal Welfare, viz., Dr. Archana Kalyanai, I.F.S, now posted as District Forest Officer, Tiruvannamalai as Amicus Curiae to assist the Court.
4. Coming to the relief sought by the petitioner to form a separate department for Tribal Welfare to be headed by Secretary to Government, it has been noticed from the averments made in the affidavit filed in support of the impleading petition bearing W.M.P.No.7546 of 2017 filed by the 6th respondent that its President, viz., C.Iraiarul, had earlier filed a writ petition bearing W.P.No.33032 of 2016 before this Court to direct the Government of Tamil Nadu to consider the representations dated 24.11.2015 and 20.04.2016 made by his Association to create a separate Ministry and separate Department for welfare of the Scheduled Tribe people in the State of Tamil Nadu, which was dismissed at the admission stage on 21.09.2016 by the Hon’ble First Bench of this Court holding as follows:-
“The petitioner seeks creation of a separate department for the Schedule Tribe
