Constitute State Level Committees To Dispose Enquiries On 'Bogus' Community Certificates, Ensure Complete Scrutiny: Madras HC Tells State

The Madras High Court has asked the state government to ensure that required number of State Level Scrutiny Committees are constituted to effectively dispose pending enquiries in connection with community certificates and ensure that the certificates are issued after complete scrutiny.The issue before the court was that many bogus Community Certificates had been issued by the revenue authorities, which is to be monitored by the Government, and in the event of issuing such bogus certificates, the Authorities issuing must be held responsible and accountable. It was brought to the court's notice that several persons who "secured public employment through bogus community certificates" and were not cooperating with the Committee for enquiry which leads to delay in taking final decision. “The respondents are directed to ensure that required number of State Level Scrutiny Committees are constituted for effective disposal of the enquiries pending before the Committee and further ensure that the community certificates are issued after complete scrutiny and by way of conducting appropriate enquiry as per the procedures contemplated,” the court said. The bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekar noted that the guidelines issued by the State for issuance and verification of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe certificates should be scrupulously followed and in the event of any failure, disciplinary action would be initiated against the officer for dereliction of duty. The court also asked the scrutiny committee to proceed against persons who had been alleged to have secured public employment through a bogus certificate and were not cooperating with the committee's enquiry. The court asked the committee to record such non-compliance and proceed without any delay. “The guidelines are to be scrupulously followed by the subordinate Authorities and in the event of failure, they must be subjected to disciplinary actions for their lapses, dereliction of duty and negligence. Further, it is brought to the notice of this Court that several persons who secured public employment through bogus community certificates are not cooperating with the Committee for enquiry which leads to delay in taking final decision. It is needless to state that in the event of non-cooperation by any of the party, the State Level Scrutiny Committee or the competent Authority is empowered to record such non cooperation and proceed with the matter without any further delay. Importantly, reasons and the non-cooperation must be specified in the order itself,” the court added. The court was hearing a petition filed by the Bank of Baroda seeking directions to the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Level Scrutiny Committee to consider the Bank's representation and determine the community status of the private respondents in a time-bound manner. The bank had said that there were several employees to had produced community certificates for securing employment under reservation quota which were later found to be bogus. The Bank's grievance was that the committee was not disposing the matters expeditiously, which was a rising concern to the Bank as they were bound to settle their retirement benefits who were on the verge of retirement and facing charges. The court noted that many bogus certificates were being issued by the Government authorities and by using such certificates, public employment was being secured illegally by several persons. The court added that the State had to assess the work load of the committee and take efforts to ensure that required number of committees are constituted for disposing the pending enquiries. The court added that the government was also empowered to fix time limits for disposing the applications. The court thus suo motu impleaded the Secretary to Government, Adi Dravidar & Tribal Welfare Department and issued directions to set up required number of committees and pass appropriate orders within 6 weeks. Counsel for Petitioner: Mrs. Revathi Manivannan Counsel for Respondents: Mr. P. Kumaresan Additional Advocate General assisted by Mr.Vadivelu Deenadayalan Additional Government Pleader for R1 to R5 Case Title: Bank of Baroda v. The Chairman and Others Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 165 Case No: W.P.No.15195 of 2025Click Here To Read/Download The Judgment

Constitute State Level Committees To Dispose Enquiries On 'Bogus' Community Certificates, Ensure Complete Scrutiny: Madras HC Tells State

Upasana Sajeev

Tags