Bombay High Court Grants Caste Certificate Using Native Place's Name & Language

A bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Anil Pansare set aside the caste scrutiny committee's order that had cited confusion in the petitioner's documents while invalidating his caste certificate. While the petitioner claimed to be from the 'Mannewar' Schedule Tribe, his ancestors' documents stated their caste as being 'Telangi,' 'Telgu' and 'Telgu Manwar.'

However, the Bombay High Court said there was no confusion as the Mennewar's were mainly found in Telangana and spoke Telugu.

"All these entries, particularly the entries of the dates of 10-7-1924 and 20-10-1934, clearly show that the paternal aunt and the cousin grandfather of the petitioner belonged to 'Manewar' community, which has been later on declared to be a Scheduled Tribe.

In some other pre-constitutional documents, the ancestors of the petitioners have been shown to be 'Telangi' or 'Telgu Manewar' or 'Telgu'. It is well settled that 'Telgangi' is the region of which the community 'Manewar' is native, while 'Telugu' is the language spoken by the community 'Manewar', now the Scheduled Tribe."

The bench further observed that the scrutiny committee had failed to take vital information into consideration when it decided the petitioner's case. It was referring to the fact that all pre-constitutional entries sufficiently supported his claim of belonging to the Manewar ST.

"Needless to say that the pre-constitutional entries have a greater probative value and when such entries sufficiently prove the social status, as claimed by the person, there is an entitlement of such person to be issued a validity certificate for the social status claimed by him, which is the case here."

Pre-constitutional documents have a greater value for issuance of caste certificates, the Court reiterated.

The bench quashed and set aside the caste committee's order and directed it to issue a tribe validity certificate to the petitioner as belonging to 'Manewar', Scheduled Tribe at the earliest and in any case within two weeks from the date of receipt of the order.

It further directed the state to process the petitioner's pension case at the earliest and preferably within six months from the date of the order.