for the post of Sarpanch of Village Sarwan Majra, Block Indri, District Karnal, which was reserved for the Scheduled Castes category. It appears that at the time of submitting the nomination form, the petitioner submitted her Scheduled Caste Certificate (Annexure P-11). The petitioner won the election and took the oath of office as Sarpanch.

2.1 It transpires that a complaint was submitted against the petitioner alleging that she contested the election of Sarpanch by submitting a false affidavit and producing a forged and fabricated Scheduled Castes Certificate.

2.2 Based on the aforesaid complaint, an inquiry was marked to the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Karnal, who submitted his inquiry report dated 21.07.2023 (Annexure P-1). Relevant extract thereof reads as under:-

“During the investigation, it was found that caste certificate has been issued to Smt. Anju Bala daughter of Sh. Shoban Prasad from District Ambala by Tehsildar Ambala on 28.10.2009 for BCA Category (attached Annexure 1), and in the document of Girls Senior Secondary School, Baldev Nagar, the caste of Smt. Anju is shown as Bengali BCA (copy attached Annexure-2). Meanwhile, Smt. Anju Bala, daughter of Sh. Shobhan Prasad, has also prepared her own Scheduled Caste certificate on the basis of the Scheduled Caste certificate of her father, who is shown to be from Bihar, in which Smt. Anju Bala has given her father’s name as Sharwan Dass son of Kesho Dass Mohalla Keshopur District Jamui State Bihar Chamar Caste (Annexure-3) which comes under Scheduled Caste category and has presented it along with other documents, using which Smt. Anju Bala got her Scheduled Caste certificate made and filed nomination for the post of Sarpanch and won the election. It is also known that by the family ID CRID in BC (A) caste of Smt. Anju Bala is verified APURVA by Patwari and Kanungo has verified general but during the Panchayat elections, a separate arrangement was made to issue the caste certificate only for the elections, misusing which Smt. Anju Bala made the SC certificate by showing the SC caste certificate of Sharwan Dass of Bihar. In this way, two different caste certificates have been prepared by the same citizen, for physical investigation, correspondence was made with the Election Officer, Ambala and Election Officer, Bihar regarding the identity card of the father of Smt. Anju Bala and while taking action, a letter was written from the office to Tehsil Election Officer, Ambala on 03.07.2023 (attached Annexure-4) that the copy of voter ID of Sh. Shobhan Prasad should be made available, in response to which the Tehsil Election Officer, Ambala, has provided the Voter ID of Sh. Shobhan Prasad (attached Annexure-5) and documents of Sharwan Das have also been obtained from Bihar (attached Annexure-6). When both the documents received were matched, it was found that the photographs of Shobhan Prasad and Sharwan Das were different.

Thereafter, notice was issued on 03.07.2023 in which Sh. Shobhan Prasad was asked to be present in the office on 12.07.2023 but Sh. Shobhan Prashad is not presented in the office, after which again on 17.07.2023 through this office notice (attached annexure P-7), he has been given an opportunity to present in the undersigned office and present his view and on 18.07.2023, the office notice was pasted on the door of his house but Sh. Shobhan Prashad remain absent.

Conclusion:-

After taking action at the office level and examined the documents, it has been found that the Smt. Anju Bala has got certificates of two different castes, which is suspicious and appears to have been made for personal benefits. Smt. Anju Bala prepared the SC caste certificate in Karnal by fraudulently submitted the SC caste certificate of Sh. Sharwan Dass (resident of Bihar State) and after which a wrong APURVA affidavit was presented before the investigation officer (attached annexure P-8), in which Shobhan Prashad and Sharwan Dass has been described as the same person. Apart from thi