Issue scheduled caste certificate to Rashmi Barve: Bombay High Court; imposes Rs 1 lakh cost on scrutiny panel

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench on Tuesday directed the scrutiny committee to issue Scheduled Caste 'chambhar' certificate within a week to Congress leader Rashmi Barve, noting her certificate was illegally invalidated through a "witch hunt" earlier.

Coming down heavily on the Caste Scrutiny Committee (CSC) for acting as the "lackey of administration", a division bench of Justices Avinash Gharote and M S Jawalkar imposed Rs 1 lakh cost on the panel to be paid to Barve within a week.

The HC observed that the petitioner's caste claim was rejected to ensure she couldn't contest the parliamentary elections.

Barve was nominated by Congress to contest from Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency before her caste certificate was rejected by the caste scrutiny committee in March noting that she had obtained the Scheduled Caste chambhar certificate fraudulently.

Barve challenged the Nagpur Caste Scrutiny Committee's order and the one passed by the Returning Officer of the Ramtek parliamentary constituency, rejecting her nomination for the Lok Sabha polls.

"We are of the considered opinion that the petitioner has made out a case that she belongs to the Scheduled Caste 'Chambhar'," the HC said.

The CSC appears to have gone on a witch hunt, being influenced by the letter of the under secretary to the state and the complaints received by it, and instead of applying an independent mind, has danced to the tune of the complainant, the high court stated.

The HC observed that the mandatory rules governing the field and even the principles of natural justice of affording a reasonable opportunity were thrown to the wind, in order to reject the caste claim of the petitioner, to ensure that she couldn't contest the parliamentary elections.

"The impugned decision, which is a result of such shenanigans cannot be permitted to stand and specifically so when there is material found in the independent enquiry by the Vigilance Cell to indicate that the caste claim of the petitioner is genuine," it said.

"We feel it our bounden duty to strongly deprecate the conduct of the CSC, who, instead of acting independently, dispassionately and within the four corners of the Caste Certificate Act and the Rules framed thereunder, has conducted the enquiry, in a manner, which no court of the land can accept, as it has merely acted as a lackey of the administration," the order stated.

The high court said it was its duty to saddle a coat of Rs 1 lakh on the CSC so that in future the same would act as a deterrent before it even thinks of dancing to the tune of someone else, instead of performing its statutory functions within the four corners of the statute.

"We, therefore, quash and set aside the impugned decision of the Caste Scrutiny Committee and direct that it shall issue a validity certificate to the petitioner of she belonging to the Scheduled Caste 'chambhar', within a period of one week from today," the bench ordered.

The Caste Scrutiny Committee is directed to pay a cost of Rs one lakh to Barve within a week, the HC said.

It added that all consequent actions done or effected in pursuance to the impugned decision of the CSC shall be rendered "non est".

The court also refused to stay its order at the request of the state government.