Birth Register Recorded 'Muslim' Without Father's Consent: Sameer Wankhede Approaches Bombay High Court Against Caste Committee's Show Cause

Former NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede has approached the Bombay High Court against a show cause notice issued to him on April 29 by the Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee regarding confiscation of his caste certificate. He has claimed that the notice is illegal, arbitrary and issued without according him an opportunity to defend himself. Wankhede has sought to quash the notice and to stay its operation it in the interim. Alternatively, Wankhede wants a committee headed by a retired High Court judge to enquire into his caste certificate or then transfer the existing complaint to the National Commission For Scheduled Caste, for adjudication. According to the Committee, complaints, documents, etc. proves that petitioner belongs to Muslim caste and follows Muslim religion, therefore the April 29 show-cause notice has asked Wankhede to why it cannot confiscate and cancel his caste certificate dated March 5, 2008 according to which he belonged to "Mahar community." State Cabinet Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik (arrested in a money laundering case) had filed the complaint against Wankhede to the caste committee. The two families have been at loggerheads for several years. Wankhede claimed that the scrutiny panel paid no heed to his objections regarding Malik's locus standi to file the complaint. The National Commission For Scheduled Caste (NCSC) had in fact asked the district committee to expedite the matter. According to Malik's complaint, Wankhede submitted false documents to secure a job as an IRS officer in SC quota after clearing the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination. Malik had alleged that Wankhede is Muslim by birth and his father's name was Dawood and not Dnyandev. Wankhede claimed that the documents he provided were not considered by the caste committee. He said the entire family on his father's side has caste certificates and none of their caste certificates have been questioned. However, since his mother is a Muslim, at the time of his birth without the father's consent the name "Dawood K. Wankhede (father's name)" was incorrectly provided to the concerned hospital and "MUSLIM" was incorrectly recorded in the "Register of Birth in Greater Bombay" against the category of "Race, Caste or Nationality." He further said his schools record also incorrectly mentioned 'Muslim' from the year 1985 upto 1989. The records were subsequently corrected. After several allegations of corruption emerged in the drugs case in which actor Shah Rukh Khan's son – Aryan Khan - was arrested the case was transferred out of Mumbai to an SIT in NCB, Delhi and effectively out of Sameer Wankhede's hands.

Birth Register Recorded 'Muslim' Without Father's Consent: Sameer Wankhede Approaches Bombay High Court Against Caste Committee's Show Cause

Sharmeen Hakim

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