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"B. The documents quoted at Sr. No. 2, 4, 5, 6, 13, 26, 28 & 33 are school records in respect of relative of the candidate in which Caste is recorded as Halbi. In view of enquiry report, documents collected by enquiry office and affinity test these documents are rejected.

G. The document quoted at Sr. No.17,19,21, 22, 23, 24 & 34 are the Xerox copies of validity certificates in respect of relatives of the candidate. The ratio of this Validity Certificate cannot be given to the candidate because the concerned person at that time may have deliberately suppressed to bring information now found out by the Inquiry Officer. Thus where there is material suppression of facts, ratio of such order cannot be applied to other. As directed by the Hon'ble Supreme  Court, each and every case should be decided on its own. Hence in the light of Vigilance Cell Report, this document is rejected.

Obviously, the enquiry, supposed to be conducted by the Vigilance Officer, would include the affinity test of the applicant to a particular  tribe to which he claims to belong. In other words, an enquiry into the kinship and affinity of the applicant to a particular Scheduled Tribe is not alien to the scheme of the Act and the Rules. In fact, it is relevant and germane to the determination of social status of an applicant. We are of the view that for the purpose of examining the caste claim under the Rules, the following observations of this Court in Kumari Madhuri Patil (supra), still hold the field:-

(ii) While applying the affinity test, which focuses on the ethnological connections with the scheduled tribe, a cautious approach has to be adopted. A few decades ago, when the tribes were somewhat immune to the cultural development happening around them, the affinity test could serve as a determinative factor.

However, with the migrations, modernisation and contact with other communities, these communities tend to develop and adopt new traits which may not essentially match with the traditional characteristics of the tribe. Hence, affinity test may not be regarded as a litmus test for establishing the link of the applicant with a Scheduled Tribe. Nevertheless, the claim by an applicant that he is a part of a scheduled tribe and is entitled to the benefit extended to that tribe, cannot per se be disregarded on the ground that his present traits do not match his tribes' peculiar anthropological and ethnological traits, deity, rituals, customs, mode of marriage, death ceremonies, method of burial of dead bodies etc. Thus, the affinity test may be used to corroborate the documentary evidence and should not be the sole criteria to reject a claim.