Entry In Scheduled Tribe List Must Be Read As It Is, Pre-Constitutional Evidence Cannot Be Ignored: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has held that pre-constitutional documentary evidence showing consistent entries of Scheduled Tribe status cannot be disregarded merely on the ground that the claimants fail to satisfy the affinity test. The Court quashed an order of the Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee and directed it to issue validity certificates to Vedant Wankhade and his father, who claimed to belong to the 'Thakur' Scheduled Tribe.The Division Bench of Justices M.S. Jawalkar and Pravin S. Patil observed that the affinity test is not a conclusive test and cannot outweigh consistent documentary evidence, especially when such evidence includes pre-1950 records that were verified by the Vigilance Cell.“… entry of a Tribe in the list of Scheduled Tribes has to be read as it is. No Authorities, including the Court, can add or subtract anything from said entry. In our considered opinion, the Caste Scrutiny Committee failed to give due weightage in so many pre-constitutional documents, which are having greatest probative value in the eyes of law,” the Court observed.The petitioners had relied on a series of documents from 1912 to 1948 showing caste as “Thakur” and had submitted a registered adoption deed of 1939 to explain certain name discrepancies. The Scrutiny Committee, however, rejected their claims on the grounds of documentary evidence, affinity and area restriction.The Court noted that 17 documents spanning decades could not be disregarded based on just two inconsistent entries, which were reasonably explained. It further held that the Vigilance Cell had found the documents to be genuine, yet the Committee dismissed them without justification.“The Petitioner answered all the questions put forth as regard of the affinity. However, the Caste Scrutiny Committee failed to consider the same in fact, in the absence of any scientific material available with regard to the traits/features of the Scheduled Tribe “Thakur”, the Scrutiny Committee was unjustified in giving weightage to the affinity instead of documents placed on record,” the Court observed.The Court also took note of the fact that the Committee had ignored settled legal principles. The Court expressed its displeasure at the state of affairs, and remarked that this is not a single case in which the Committee has acted in this manner; the Committee has been acting contrary to the guidelines and disbelieving the documents which are prior to 1950 by discarding thereby valid claims.The High Court quashed the Scrutiny Committee's order dated 31.12.2021 and directed it to issue caste validity certificates to the petitioners within two weeks.Case Title: Vedant & Anr. v. Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati & Ors. [Writ Petition Nos. 1849 of 2022 & 2360 of 2022]Click Here To Read/Download Order

Entry In Scheduled Tribe List Must Be Read As It Is, Pre-Constitutional Evidence Cannot Be Ignored: Bombay High Court

Saksham Vaishya

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