Hon’ble Rajan Roy, J.—This is the 5th round of litigation by the petitioner, who is a Driver in the Agriculture department of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, seeking restoration of his status as a Scheduled Tribe person.

2. By means of this writ petition the petitioner has challenged the decision of the High Powered Caste Scrutiny Committee, which has cancelled the Caste Certificate dated 17.1.2004 issued to the petitioner by which he had earlier been treated as belonging to the Gond Tribe i.e. Scheduled Tribe.

3. The petitioner’s case is that he is the original inhabitant of village Raipur, Tehsil Jakhaniya, District Ghazipur. Initially a caste certificate was issued to him on 8.12.1993 treating him to be a Scheduled Caste as at that point of time Gond caste was included in the list of Scheduled Castes. In the year 2002, an amendment was made in the Presidential Scheduled Tribe Order and the Gond caste was included in the list of Scheduled Tribes inter alia for district Ghazipur in the State of U.P.. Subsequent to the aforesaid amendment, on 17.1.2004, a caste certificate was issued to the petitioner certifying him to be belonging to a Scheduled Tribe by the competent authority of district Ghazipur, U.P..

4. Thereafter, selection process was initiated for appointment on the post of Driver in the Agriculture Department and the petitioner considering himself eligible, applied for the same under the reserved category for Scheduled Tribes. His caste certificate dated 17.1.2004 was sent for verification to the Tehsildar Jakhaniya, District Ghazipur, who vide report dated 19.11.2007 informed that the said certificate had been issued to the petitioner and is mentioned in the issuing register of the office at sl. No. 132.

5. However, subsequently it appears that a contrary report was sent by the Tehsildar Jakhaniya that the Gond caste fell in backward caste category. Be that as it may, the petitioner was appointed on the post of Driver on 22.11.2007 under the reserved category for Scheduled Tribes and consequent thereto he joined duty on 4.12.2007.

6. It appears that on account of the contradictory reports referred above, certain queries were made regarding the veracity of the caste certificate of the petitioner and ultimately the same was cancelled by the Tehsildar Jakhaniya vide his order dated 10.1.2008, which was challenged by the petitioner before this Court by means of Writ Petition No. 14773 of 2008, Bindra Prasad v. State of U.P. and others and the said writ petition was allowed and the order dated 10.1.2008 was set aside on the ground that the same had been passed without affording any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and liberty was granted to the authorities to pass fresh orders in accordance with law.

7. Thereafter, the petitioner submitted relevant documents before the authorities in support of his claim of belonging to a Scheduled Tribe and after due opportunity, the Tehsildar again passed an order dated 15.1.2009 cancelling the caste certificate dated 17.1.2004 issued to the petitioner inter alia on the ground that the petitioner had submitted only photostat copies of the documents, he had not availed the benefits of scholarships available to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes during his schooling thereby raising a presumption that he did not belong to the said category, Gonds reside only in Kaimur Range of Mirzapur district and the petitioner in fact appears to belong to bhadbhooja caste which is a backward caste and not a Scheduled Tribe.

8. The petitioner again approached this Court by means of Writ Petition No. 14108 of 2009 challenging the aforesaid order dated 15.1.2009. This writ petition was also allowed with the observation that the Tehsildar Jakhaniya has failed to consider the amendment of 2002 in the Constitution (Uttar Pradesh) Scheduled Tribes Order, 1967 according to which, the Gond caste of district Ghazipur in the State of U.P. had been included in the list of Scheduled Tribes,