SAMIRA PRAVIN SAVALE vs. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS

2024:BHC-AUG:1367-DB
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD
WRIT PETITION NO.14096 OF 2021
Samira Pravin Savale,
Age:- 18 years, Occ. Student,
R/o Thalner, Tq. Shirpur,
Dist. Dhule. ..Petitioner
Versus
1. The State of Maharashtra,
Through its Secretary,
Tribal Department,
Mantralaya, Mumbai-32,
2. The Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee,
Nandurbar Nandurbar,
Through its Deputy Director (R).
3. The Tahsildar,
Tahsil Office, Shirpur,
Tq. Shirpur, Dist. Dhule.
4. The Commissioner & Competent Authority,
State CET Cell, Maharashtra State,
Mumbai-1.
th
8 Floor, New Exelsior Building,
AK Marg, Fort, Mumbai-1
(Controller of Admission Process). ..Respondents.
…
Mr. P. V. Jadhavar, Advocate for the Petitioner.
Mr. N. S. Tekale, AGP for Respondent Nos.1 to 3.
Mr. S. G. Karlekar, Advocate for Respondent No.4.
…
CORAM : SMT. VIBHA KANKANWADI AND
S. G. CHAPALGAONKAR, JJ.
th
JUDGMENT RESERVED ON :- 18 JANUARY 2024.
rd
JUDGMENT PRONOUNCED ON :- 23 JANUARY 2024.
JUDGMENT (Per: S. G. Chapalgaonkar, J.):-
1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of
the parties, matter is taken up for final hearing at the stage of
admission.

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2. The petitioner approaches this Court under Article 226 of
the Constitution of India, thereby impugning the order dated
24.11.2021 passed by respondent no.2-Scheduled Tribe Certificate
Scrutiny Committee, Nandurbar, thereby invalidating the caste claim of
the petitioner as belonging to ‘ Koli Mahadev ’, Scheduled Tribe.
3. Mr. Pratap Jadhavar, learned Advocate appearing for the
petitioner would submit that the petitioner is a student and pursuing
her education. The Competent Authority issued caste certificate dated
17.02.2018 in his favour certifying that she belongs to ‘ Koli Mahadev ’,
Scheduled Tribe. The certificate was forwarded to the Committee for
verification alongwith various documents including school record,
service book record and affidavit containing genealogy. The vigilance
inquiry was ordered by the Committee. On receipt of the report, show
cause notice was issued, which has been duly replied by petitioner
explaining the adverse remarks. Mr. Jadhavar would submit that the
petitioner has submitted pre-Constitutional documents in the form of
school admission entry of second cousin i.e. Sahadu Khandu Savale
dated 01.06.1941, Mirabai Govinda Savale i.e. cousin grandmother
dated 01.06.1949, Rohidas Kautik Savale i.e. grandfather dated
01.06.1951 and so on. However, Committee relying upon some contra
entries pertaining to the distinct blood relatives, discarded the caste
claim of the petitioner, which is contrary to the settled legal position.
4. The learned AGP supports order and points out that the
vigilance report depicts the entries from 1915 onward depicting caste of
petitioner’s blood relatives as ‘ Koli ’, ‘ Mahadev Koli ’, ‘ Suryawanshi Koli ’
‘ Hindu Suryawanshi Koli ’, ‘ Hindu Mahadev Koli ’, ‘ Hindu Tokre Koli ’,
which is contrary to the claim of the petitioner for ‘ Koli Mahadev ’,
Schedule Tribe. The Committee has taken possible view after
considering the documents on record. He would further submit that the
petitioner failed to establish the traits analogous to tribes peculiar

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Anthropological and ethnological traits, deity, customs etc. He would,
therefore, submit that there is no merit in the petition.
5. We have considered the submissions advanced on behalf of
the respective parties, so also perused the annexures to this petition.
The original file received from the Committee is also made available for
our consideration. The petitioner in support of her caste claim for ‘Koli
Mahadev’, Scheduled Tribe placed reliance on following documents:-

6. The Committee relied upon the contra entries in respect of
cousin great great grandfather and cousin grandfather, which are from
1915 to 1941, wherein caste is referred as ‘ Koli ’. Apparently, the
reliance of the petitioner is on pre-Constitutional documents, so also
period of vicinity of Presidential order. The petitioner is relying upon
two documents of the year 1951 depicting the entry of caste as
‘ Mahadev Koli ’, Scheduled Tribe in the school record of the blood
relatives i.e. second cousin, cousin paternal aunt, grandfather and
cousin grandfather. Pertinently, the aforesaid record is impeccable in
character. The vigilance report nowhere doubts the genuineness of the
said documents being fraudulent or obtained by misrepresentation or
observing any overwriting or manipulation. So far as the contra entries
noted by the Committee are concerned, those are during pre-
Constitutional period, when no benefit was available based on the caste
to the particular community. The entries depict ‘ Koli ’ as caste without

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further abbreviations. This Court in case of Mayuri Sudhakar
1
Sawsakad and another Vs. State of Maharashtra & others
observed in paragraph no.19 as under:-
“19. In our view, the concept of recognized Scheduled Tribe for the
purposes of giving benefits and concessions was not prevailing prior
to 1950 and, therefore, only caste or community to which a person
belonged was stated in the birth, school and revenue records
maintained. The documents are issued in the printed format, which
contains a column under the heading ‘Caste’ and there is no column
of tribe. Irrespective of the fact that it is a tribe, the name of tribe is
shown in column of caste. While entering the name, the distinction
between caste and tribe is ignored.”
7. It would be, therefore, appropriate to give weightage to the
pre-Constitutional document, which specifies caste and tribe both in the
document. In the present case, the school record of Sahadu Khandu
Savale (1941), Mirabai Govinda Savale (1949) specify caste to be
‘ Mahadev Koli ’. Further in the year 1951 the school admission extracts
of the petitioner’s grandfather Rohidas Kautik Savale and cousin
grandfather Lotan Namdev Savale show caste entries as ‘ Mahadev
Koli ’. In light of this pre-Constitutional record of blood relations, we
have no hesitation to hold that the documents produced by the
petitioner would fetch greater probative value, whereas the other
entries relied upon by the Committee, although pre-Constitutional
referring caste as ‘ Koli ’ would not read as contra entries to dislodge the
caste claim of the petitioner for ‘ Koli Mahadev ’ Scheduled Tribe. So far
as the affinity test is concerned, it is now well settled that it would be
the corroborative evidence to the documentary evidence and should not
be sole criteria to reject the caste claim. Further in view of the
industrialization and overall development bringing various means of
transportation and homogenization classes of the society, affinity test
cannot be considered as litmus test in view of the acceptance of new
traits by the tribe. Therefore, failure to corroborate with the peculiar
anthropological or ethnological traits, deity, rituals, customs, mode of
1 2019 (6) Mh.L.J. 766.

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marriage, death ceremonies, method of burial of dead bodies, etc. can be
ignored in facts of the case. Some variation in this regard may not be
read adverse to the caste claim. It is true that in absence of
documentary evidence, the affinity test assumes great significance and
due importance needs to be given in appropriate cases. However, when
the claim is based on documents, the preference needs to be given to the
documentary evidence, particularly documents pertaining to pre-
Constitutional era.
8. In view of the aforesaid observations, we have no hesitation
to hold that the Committee has adopted hyper technical approach and
erroneously dislodged the caste claim of the petitioner.
9. Hence, we proceed to pass following order:-
ORDER
a. Writ Petition is allowed.
b. The impugned order dated 24.11.2021 passed by respondent no.2-
Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nandurbar is hereby
quashed and set aside.
c. The respondent no.2-Committee shall immediately issue
certificate of caste validity in favour of the petitioner for ‘ Koli Mahadev ’,
Scheduled Tribe.
d. Writ Petition is disposed of.
e. Rule is made absolute in above terms.
(S. G. CHAPALGAONKAR) (SMT. VIBHA KANKANWADI)
JUDGE JUDGE
Devendra/January-2024