Bombay High Court
Rashtriya Halba Jamat Mahamandal, ... vs Secretary, Ministry Of Social Justice ... on 6 March, 2019
Author: Vinay Joshi
Bench: Ravi K. Deshpande, Vinay Joshi
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR.
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION NO. 13 OF 2019
(Rashtriya Halba Jamat Mahamandal vrs. Secretary, Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India and ors)
Office Notes, Office Memoramda of Coram,
appearances, Court's orders of directions Court's or Judge's orders.
and Registrar's Orders.
Shri S.R.Narnaware, Advocate for Petitioner.
Shri N.R.Patil, AGP for Respondent Nos. 3 to 6
CORAM: R.K. DESHPANDE AND
VINAY JOSHI, JJ.
DATE: 6th MARCH, 2019 The petition claims the reliefs as under;
"i] Issue the writ of mandamus or any other order or any other appropriate writ, directions in the nature of mandamus, thereby declaring Maharashtra Act No.23/2001, more particularly Section 6(1) and Rule 9 and 10 of the Rules 2002 as unconstitutional, unreasonable, arbitrary and contravention of directions issued by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Ku.Madhuri Patil, reported in AIR 1995 SC 94 (Annexure-3), in the case of Ku.Madhuri Patil (II), reported in AIR 1997 SC in the interest of justice.
ii] Declare the constitution of scrutiny committees and police vigilance cells and qualifications of Research Officers are contrary to the directions issued by the Apex Court in the case of Ku.Madhuri Patil, reported in AIR 1995 SC 94 (Annexure-3), in the case of Ku.Madhuri Patil (II), reported in AIR 1997 SC, in the interest of justice.
iii] declare that scrutiny committees established under Maharashtra Act No. 23/2001 have no jurisdiction to verify the caste claim of the Central Govt. employees, in the interest of justice;.::: Uploaded on - 06/03/2019 ::: Downloaded on - 14/03/2019 03:00:20 ::: pil13.19.odt 2/4
iv] direct the scrutiny committees to issue the validity certificates to the claimants wherein validity certificates are already issued by the scrutiny committees to the blood relatives from parental side, in the interest of justice.
v] direct the scrutiny committees not to insist upon the documents pertaining to the pre- presidential period for verification of caste claims, in the interest of justice.
vi] direct the scrutiny committees to permit the claimants to cross examine the Research Officer, Police Officer and Head-master concerned as per Section 9 of the Maharashtra Act No. 23/1001, in the interest of justice.
vii] direct the caste issuance authority i.e. Tahsildar, Sub Divisional Officer, Executive Magistrate, Deputy Collector etc., to issue the caste certificate as per Section 4 of the Maharashtra Act No. 23/2001 without insisting documents of pre-presidential period, in the interest of justice;
viii] direct the scrutiny committees not to insist upon the fresh caste certificate in prescribed Form-C and to verify and decide the caste claim on the basis of the old caste certificate issued by the competent authority, in the interest of justice.
ix] direct the scrutiny committee to decide the caste claim of the claimants belonging to the reserved category who are migrated to State of Maharashtra on the ground of reorganization of States and bifurcation of Regions who are permanently residing in the State of Maharashtra, in the interest of justice.
x] direct the respondent No.5 to consider the complaints and suggestions given by the associations and persons, in the interest of justice.
xi] direct the scrutiny committee to accept the proposal of caste verification online as well as offline as per Section 6 (2 & 3) of the Mah. Act No. 23/2001, in the interest of justice.
xii] direct the scrutiny committee not to encroach upon the jurisdiction of the employer by issuing any direction to ::: Uploaded on - 06/03/2019 ::: Downloaded on - 14/03/2019 03:00:20 ::: pil13.19.odt 3/4 terminate the services, in the interest of justice.
xiii] direct the scrutiny committee not to register FIR directly in the police station, but file private complaint as per Section 11 and 12 of the Mah. Act No. 23/2001, in the interest of justice;
xiv] direct the scrutiny committee to obey and follow the recent judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court under Article 141 and judgment delivered by the Hon'ble High Court under Article 226 and not to pass the mechanical and stereo typed orders on the basis of old judgments which are in favour of the scrutiny committee, in the interest of justice.
xv] direct the scrutiny committee to follow the mandatory procedure scrupulously and strictly Rule 12 of Rules 2003, Rule 17 of the Rules 2012 and direction No.5 of Ku.Madhuri Patil's case, in the interest of justice.
xvi] declare that Koshti is an occupation of weaving, in the interest of justice xvii] declare that mere invalidation of caste claim on the ground that the claimant failed to establish his caste claim, cannot fall in the category of false caste certificate, in the interest of justice;
xviii] grant any other just, equitable and consequential relief/order may kindly be granted, in favour of the petitioners by this Hon'ble Court as may deem fit and proper in the interest of justice.
The petitioner claims to be a social worker and not directly affected by any of the decisions taken either by the Scrutiny Committee or operation of the provisions of Maharashtra Act No. XXIII of 2001 or the Rules framed thereunder.::: Uploaded on - 06/03/2019 ::: Downloaded on - 14/03/2019 03:00:20 ::: pil13.19.odt 4/4
In view of this, we do not find any reason to entertain the Public Interest Litigation challenging the vires of the Act.
The Public Interest Litigation is dismissed with costs of Rs.5,000/-.
The costs to be paid to the District Court Bar Association, Nagpur.
JUDGE JUDGE
Rvjalit
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