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1. Rule, made returnable forthwith. Counsel for the Respondents waive service of rule on behalf of the respective Respondents.

A. The compass of the controversy

2. Reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and for the Backward Classes is an important component of the policy of the State of ensuring electoral representation to these communities in institutions of local self governance. Equally, there is legislative recognition of the concern that affirmative action programmes must reach out to those who genuinely belong to the communities for whom they are designed. Election to a local self governing body on a reserved seat, of a candidate who does not belong to the community for whom the seat is reserved is destructive of the object and purpose of the reservation. A candidate who does not belong to the class for whom the seat is reserved in a democratically elected body does not truly represent the class. This concern led to the enactment by the legislature of two Acts in the State of Maharashtra. The first is the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of Caste Certificate) Act, 2000. The second of them is the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations and Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships (Amendment) Act, 2000. By the first of the aforesaid enactments, the State legislature has enacted provisions inter alia for the issuance of caste certificates, scrutiny and verification of caste certificates, cancellation and confiscation of the false caste certificates, withdrawal of benefits secured on the basis of false caste certificates including electoral disqualification and penalties against persons who have fraudulently obtained such certificates. By the second enactment, amendments were made to statutes relating to Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats so as to incorporate provisions for the disqualification of Councillors who have been elected to reserved seats on caste certificates invalidated and cancelled by the Scrutiny Committee on the ground of the caste certificate being based on a false claim or declaration. In the present case, the caste certificate of the Petitioner who was returned as an elected candidate in one of the Wards of the Thane Municipal Corporation in a reserved constituency has been held to be invalid. The Scrutiny Committee has directed that a prosecution will have to be launched against the Petitioner for having furnished false information in order to obtain a caste certificate. In accordance with the relevant statutory provisions which we will refer to in the course of this judgment, the Petitioner is deemed to have vacated his office upon the declaration of the invalidity of his certificate and its cancellation by the Scrutiny Committee on the ground provided in the statute. The order of the Scrutiny Committee is impugned in these proceedings under Article 226.

A criminal offence and penalty is provided for in Section 11 of the Act in the following terms:

"11. (1) Whoever, -

(a) obtains a false Caste Certificate by furnishing false information or filing false statement or documents or by any other fraudulent means; or

(b) not being a person belonging to any of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-notified Tribes, (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes or Special Backward Category secures any benefits or appointments exclusively reserved for such Castes, Tribes or Classes in the Government, local authority or any other company or corporation owned or controlled by the Government or in any Government aided institution, or secures admission in any educational institution against a seat exclusively reserved for such Castes, Tribes or Classes or is elected to any of the elective offices of any local authority or Co-operative Society against the office, reserved for such Castes, Tribes or Classes by producing a false Caste Certificate;

F. The Ground for Electoral Disqualification

11. On behalf of the Petitioner, it has been submitted that the mere invalidation of the claim of a candidate to belong to a particular caste, Tribe or Backward Class of citizens is not by itself a ground for disqualification. That submission has merit. Ex facie, in Clause (a) of Sub-section (1C) of Section 10, the disqualification is attracted consequent upon the Scrutiny Committee declaring the caste certificate to be invalid and cancelling the same "on the ground of the same having been based on a false claim or declaration made by such person claiming to be belonging to the reserved category". There is in this sense a degree of consistency in the statutory theme enacted in the provisions of Section 10(1C) of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949 and the provisions of Section 10(4) of Maharashtra Act XXIII of 2001. Disqualification under Section 10(1C) results where the ground for the invalidation and cancellation of the caste certificate is that it is based on a false claim or declaration by such person claiming to belong to a reserved category. In Section 10(4) of Act XXIII of 2001, the disqualification is attracted where a person has contested an election for a local authority, co-operative society or statutory body on a reserved seat by procuring a false caste certificate and on such false caste certificate being cancelled by the Scrutiny Committee. The power of cancellation is conferred upon the Scrutiny Committee by Section 7(1) of the said Act, under which the Committee is empowered to inquire into the correctness of the certificate and to cancel and confiscate it if it is of the opinion that the certificate was obtained fraudulently. Therefore, on an interpretation of Sections 7(1) and 10(4) of Maharashtra Act XXIII of 2001 on one hand, as well as of Section 10(1C) of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949 as amended by Maharashtra Act 11 of 2002 on the other, it would be apparent that the legislature has required that apart from a mere invalidation of a caste certificate, an additional factor has to exist before a candidate can be regarded as being disqualified from holding electoral office. In Section 10(1C) as amended by Act 11 of 2002, the additional factor is that the caste certificate should have been held to be invalid and must have been cancelled on the ground of the certificate having been based a false claim or declaration. In Section 10(4) of Act XXIII of 2001, the additional factor is the cancellation of a false certificate. This has to be read together with Section 7 under which the power of cancellation arises on the ground that the certificate was obtained fraudulently.

17. In so far as Maharashtra Act XXIII of 2001 is concerned, the Scrutiny Committee's power to cancel and confiscate the caste certificate is based on the formation of an opinion by the Committee that "the certificate was obtained fraudulently". (Section 7(1)). On a false certificate being cancelled, a disqualification results under Section 10(4). Section 11 of the Act creates a criminal offence and provides a penalty of imprisonment inter alia for obtaining a false caste certificate by furnishing false information or filing a false statement or documents or by any other fraudulent means. Similarly, a person elected to an elective office of a local authority or co-operative society by producing a false caste certificate is subject to penal sanctions. These are stringent provisions, conceived in the public interest and invite serious consequences for infractions.