The central legal point established in the judgment is the significance of genuine reports from vigilance officers in caste certificate scrutiny and the binding nature of such reports on the Caste Verification Committee.

JUDGMENT

MILIND RAMESH PHADKE, J. - The present Petition had been preferred being aggrieved by the order dtd. 18/09/2018 passed by State Level Caste Scrutiny Committee (shall be referred to as 'Committee'), by which instead of scrutinizing the caste certificate afresh, the earlier order dtd. 08/06/2016 passed by it had been confirmed, on the ground that the order passed by the committee was illegal, as the caste of the Petitioner was not in dispute, the caste certificate issued by Mandal Coordinator issued in the year 1990 was not in dispute and the certificate issued by SubDivisional-Officer, Bhander was also not in dispute, the only dispute was with regard to certificate which was issued by the Tehsilder, which had been declared to be forged on the ground that in revenue records the entry of aforesaid certificate does not exists, when during Police investigation Tehsildar had categorically admitted that the certificate was issued under his signatures, thus, since the Petitioner was being victimized due to procedural lapses, the fault of which could not be attributed to the Petitioner, the present Petition was filed.

2. Brief facts of the case necessary for adjudication are that Petitioner, who belongs to Scheduled Caste, had procured a caste certificate from Mandal Coordinator in the year 1980. Later the power to issue caste certificate was given to Tehsildar and accordingly vide certificate dtd. 13/12/1994 Respondent No.5 issued the certificate. Again thereafter the competent authority for issuing the caste certificate changed from tehsildar to Sub-Divisional-Officer and in pursuance thereof another certificate was issued to the Petitioner by Sub-DivisionalOfficer, Bhander.

3. The Petitioner in the year 2001 was appointed as Samvida Shala Shikshak, Grade - II and was later absorbed as Adyapak and since Petitioner was at S. No. 5 of the waiting list he was appointed under unreserved category and later the Petitioner got elected as member of Zila Panchayat, Gwalior. A complaint was made by Respondent No.7with regard to Petitioner possessing false caste certificate as he was resident of UttarPradesh, on the basis of which inquiry was initiatedby Tehsildar and it was found that there was no entry of the certificate in the revenue records. Since the allegations were that the Petitioner was resident of Utter Pradesh, inquiry was also conducted by Tehsildar Jhansi, who submitted report that the Petitioner is not resident of Gram Bareta, U.P. as he had shifted to somewhere in Madhya Pradesh, but his father, brother and other family members are living at gram Bareta, U.P. and their caste is Chamar.

4. Prior to that on 05/02/2016 caste scrutiny committee called report from S.P. Datia. In pursuance thereof Dy. Superintendent of Police, AJAK, Datia, was directed to verify the certificate and the serial status of the petitioner, wherein after inquiry it was found that the caste certificate issued in the year 1980, was issued by Mandal Sanyojak, Adim Jati and Harijan Kalyan, Bhander, District Gwalior and on Serial no. 221B/21/13-14by Tehsil Bhander and the certificate of brother of the Petitioner Nandlal, was issued by Additional Collector, Gwalior in the year 1981 and Tehsil Bhander in the year 1995, which were found to be legal. It was further reported that Petitioner belongs to SC and prior to 1950 he is living in Maythana Pali Tehsil Bhander, which was endorsed by certificate of Janpad Panchayat, panchnana and affidavits and thereafter he started living in gram Taidot, Datia. It was also reported that the Petitioner had got the appointment as Samvida Shala Shikshak, Grade -II on the basis of merits under unreserved category and had not used the certificate or had taken advantage of reservation and he belongs to Jatav Community, which comes under Scheduled Caste.

5. In the meanwhile on 03/05/2016 Collector sent representation to National Commission for Scheduled Caste, New Delhi that the certificate issued to the Petitioner is not regi