Gujarat High Court Permits Provisional Appointment Of Person Claiming Scheduled Tribe Quota Pending Scrutiny Of Caste Certificate
The Gujarat High Court has permitted a person claiming to be from the Scheduled Tribe community, to be provisionally appointed to the post of Sales Tax Inspector Class III, pending scrutiny of the caste certificate produced by him.Justice Biren Vaishnav directed that such an appointment will be subjected to the result of the Scrutiny Committee. If the certificate produced by the Petitioner...
The Gujarat High Court has permitted a person claiming to be from the Scheduled Tribe community, to be provisionally appointed to the post of Sales Tax Inspector Class III, pending scrutiny of the caste certificate produced by him.
Justice Biren Vaishnav directed that such an appointment will be subjected to the result of the Scrutiny Committee. If the certificate produced by the Petitioner is proved to be disingenuous , the Petitioner would not be entitled to the benefit of being in provisional service. Per contra, if the certificate of the Petitioner is found to be genuine, it will be open for the Petitioner to claim his actual appointment along with continuity of service and other benefits.
The Petitioner, a Scheduled Tribe candidate, herein had prayed for a direction to the State authorities for an appointment order for the post of Sales Tax Inspector Class III. He submitted that his appointment was orally denied on the ground that the caste (Rabari Community) to which he belonged was under scrutiny of the State Government.
Reliance was placed on the order of the Gujarat High Court in a special leave application wherein the Petitioner had cleared the process and was found eligible to be appointed to the post of Police Inspector (Unarmed) Class-II in 2021. It was averred that the scrutiny for the examination had been pending for more than a year and the Petitioner had been selected for the appointment of the post of police inspector but for the scrutiny exercise, he had not been issued appointment orders. The High Court had granted provisional appointment to the Petitioner for the same.
Per contra, the AGP contested that due to certain protests and agitations, caste certificates were not granted to the Rabari and other communities which lived in the forested areas of Alech, Gir, and Barda of Gujarat. Therefore, the Petitioner will not be issued a caste certificate till the time the issue was resolved.
The Bench while noting the order of the co-ordinate bench by the Gujarat High Court cited by the Petitioner, directed the Respondent authorities to grant provisional appointment to the Petitioner to the pertinent post. It was further directed that the order of the Scrutiny Committee be issued within four months.
Case Title: Jaydev Mulubhai Jaju vs State Of Gujarat
Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Guj) 177