Election Tribunal Cannot Scrutinize Validity Of Duly Issued Caste Certificate In Election Petition: Allahabad High Court
The Allahabad High Court has observed that an Election Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to verify or declare a caste certificate forged; hence, a duly issued certificate cannot be challenged or scrutinized in an election petition.
A bench of Justice Neeraj Tiwari made this observation while dismissing an election petition filed by one Radha Charan, who sought to set aside the election of Vinay Prakash Gond from the 335 Ram Kola Legislative Assembly Constituency in Kushinagar district.
For context, the assembly constituency was reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections.
The petitioner (Charan) alleged that the returned candidate (Gond) actually belongs to the Other Backwards Class and that he had fraudulently obtained a Scheduled Caste certificate to file his nomination papers.
Before the HC, the petitioner argued that under the Representation of the People Act 1951, the Election Tribunal has ample power to examine the genuineness of every document submitted before the Returning Officer, including the caste certificate, even though a challenge to the said certificate was already pending before a District Level Committee.
Opposing the plea, the returned candidate (Gond) submitted that in the light of the Government Order dated 03.12.1987, the 'Gond Caste' is included in the list of SC and 'Kahar Caste' is included in the list of OBC.
It was also stated in the written submission that the caste certificate issued to him was scrutinised by the District Level Committee and it was found to be genuine and duly issued by the said Committee.
It was further argued that in case of any doubt or genuineness of the caste certificate, the petitioner is required to file a complaint before the District Level Committee and in case the same is rejected, there is a remedy to challenge the same before the Divisional Level Committee. Thereafter, the State Level Committee is the final authority against the order of the Divisional Level Committee.
Furthermore, it was submitted that the Election Tribunal has no authority to verify the validity of a caste certificate duly issued by the competent authority.
Agreeing with the returned candidates' submissions, the Court referred to Supreme Court judgments, including the ruling in Kumari Madhuri Patil vs Addl Commissioner, 1994, to emphasise that specialised scrutiny committees are the exclusive expert forums, armed with fact-finding authority, to determine social status claims.
The Court observed that the Supreme Court guidelines established for educational admissions apply equally to election disputes.
"After clarification by this Court, it is apparently clear that guidelines so issued by the Apex Court in the matter of Kumari Madhuri Patil ELEP No. 6 of 2022 12 (Supra) for admission in educational institution shall also be applicable in election matters meaning thereby the only committee so constituted by the State Government shall have authority to issue or cancel the caste certificate and it is beyond the competence of Court except under Article 226 of Constitution of India after final decisional taken by the State Level Scrutiny Committee. Now this fact is very much clear that Election Tribunal is having no authority to verify the correctness of Caste Certificate and it is only for the committees so constituted by the State Government by different Government Orders", the Court said.
The bench also relied on the recent Supreme Court ruling in A Raja vs D Kumar 2025 LiveLaw SC 537, wherein it was held that a duly issued caste or community certificate is amenable to challenge only under the concerned statutory provisions or committee guidelines, not in an election petition.
The Court noted that the State Government had issued specific Government Orders constituting 3 distinct committees in a hierarchy to examine the validity of caste certificates, and that these committees possess exclusive authority to validate or invalidate them.
"Therefore, it the light of facts mentioned herein above as well as judgments relied upon, now it is crystal clear that Caste Certificate issued by the competent authority neither can be challenged nor it can be scrutinized by the Election Tribunal in Election Petition", the Court concluded.
The bench thus dismissed the petition for lacking merit.
Case title - Radha Charan vs State Of U.P. And 2 Others 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 360
Case Citation : 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 360