Supreme Court To Hear On March 28 MP Navneet Kaur Rana's Plea Against Bombay HC Judgment Cancelling Caste Certificate

Observing that the Amravati MP had committed 'systematic fraud', the Bombay High Court cancelled her caste certificate and the Caste Scrutiny Committee's (CSC) 2017 order validating her claim of belonging to the 'Mochi' Schedule Caste. She had won the elections from a seat reserved for SC candidates.

This order was stayed by a vacation Bench of the Supreme Court in 2021.

Before a Bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjay Kumar today, an advocate appearing for the petitioner shortly briefed the Bench on the factual matrix of the case.

“We’ve submitted a list of dates. This is on the invalidation of the caste certificate by the High Court. The verification scrutiny committee had verified and validated it (Caste certificate). The High Court invalidated it.”

“This is will require a hearing”, the Bench said.

I need to submit some judgements of this Court, the advocate further said.

“The urgency is this matter is that there’s a stay in their favour”, the complainant against Rana stated.

The Bench however, was keen to hear what the State government had to say.

“Sir, you are the complainant. You have set the things in motion. You can’t stretch things beyond a point. Where’s the State? It’s not that we are displacing you (the complainants). But we wanted to know what’s the stand of the State”.

The Bench was then informed that Advocate Sidharth Dharmadhikari, who was supposed to appear for the State of Maharashtra was caught up in a Constitution Bench hearing.

The issue, the complainant said, was a simple point – The other side was seeking a ‘constitutional impossibility’. They are asking the Bench to interpret that caste ‘x’ in the Presidential order means ‘y’ as well.

“There’s a clear constitutional embargo. There are 3 CB judgements”.

Earlier, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Amravati MP, had submitted that the terms "Mochi" and "chamaar" are synonymous.

Another complainant, who was impleaded via an intervention application, pointed out that on the basis of that caste certificate, they (the petitioner) got elected to the parliamentary election.

“That’s the only anxiety. That is, the certificate has ultimately led to the process of election being undertaken and the person getting elected also”, the Bench weighed in.

At this point, Rohatgi, appearing for Rana, joined midway to contend how the certificate was verified and that the High Court sat in its appeal.

“We can't hear in bits and pieces. We will have to hear the matter”, the Bench said.

Rana, an independent candidate from Maharashtra's Amravati constituency, was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 by defeating then sitting Shiv Sena MP Anandrao Adsul with backing from the NCP. Her husband, Ravi Rana, is an MLA. However, Rana was said to be drifting towards the BJP since the 2019 election.

Case Title: Navneet Kaur vs The State of Maharashtra | SLP [C] No. 7776/2021