New Delhi: In a major relief for Amravati MP and BJP leader Navneet Kaur Rana, the Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the Bombay High Court's judgment which cancelled her Scheduled Caste certificate.
A bench comprising justices J K Maheshwari and Sanjay Karol said: “the instant appeals stand allowed and the impugned judgment passed by the high court stands set aside. The validation order dated November 3, 2017, passed by the Scrutiny Committee is restored”. The Scrutiny Committee which did not find any fault with her caste certificate, which was used in filing nomination papers in 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Justice Maheshwari, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, highlighted that the issue of procurement of caste certificate through fraudulent means has been a longtime menace. In absence of any mechanism prescribing the procedure, the discretionary powers vested with authorities concerned have been subject matter of multiple layers of litigation before courts throughout India, said justice Maheshwari.
The Scrutiny Committee had accepted Rana's caste claim on the basis of two documents, bona¬fide certificate of 2014 issued by Khalsa College of Arts, Science and Commerce in the name of the appellant's grandfather mentioning his caste as ‘Sikh Chamar’. Second, the Indenture of Tenancy of 1932 which corroborated the claim of her forefathers having migrated to Maharashtra from Punjab back in 1932 itself along with proof of residence.
The bench said that the argument of the respondents that a reserved category in one state cannot be granted benefit of reservation in another state has no bearing in the present case since in the Rana’s case. “The appellant (Rana) did not claim ‘Mochi’ caste based on her caste in some other state. Rather, the claim was for ‘Mochi’ based on genealogical caste history of appellant’s forefathers”, said the bench, in its 44-page judgment.
The bench observed that the Scrutiny Committee verified her claim holding that she belongs to ‘Mochi’ caste in accordance with Entry 11 of presidential order as application to Maharashtra. “So far as the question as to judicial scope to tinker with Presidential Order is concerned, there is no quarrel that Presidential Order cannot be amended directly or indirectly”, said the bench.
Justice Maheshwari said, however, the whole argument of respondents to the effect interference by this court would amount to fiddling with the presidential order is not sustainable for the reason that the case of Rana neither calls for any inquiry into a sub caste nor does it amend the presidential order. “The Appellant had claimed ‘Mochi’, the scrutiny committee validated and granted the ‘Mochi’ caste certificate and ‘Mochi’ caste is clearly mentioned in Entry 11 of the Presidential Order”, said the bench.
The apex court noted that the Scrutiny Committee heard all the parties in detail complying with the principles of natural justice. “Hence, in our considered opinion, the order of the Scrutiny Committee did not merit any interference by the High Court in a ‘writ of certiorari’ under Article 226 of Constitution”, it said.
The bench said in such a case, where the applicant is tracing the caste genealogy based on documents from pre-independence era, the task of the Scrutiny Committee is to validate or reject a claim of validity certificate based on assessment of documents that are filed by the applicant. “More so, the Scrutiny Committee under Rule 4(3) of the 2012 Rules can even allow caste claim without any supporting documents……such adjudication is kept within the exclusive domain of Scrutiny Committee under Rule 13(2)(a) of 2012 Rules”, said the bench.
The apex court said it is only when the Scrutiny Committee after holding an enquiry is not satisfied with the material produced by the applicant, it may refer to the vigilance cell. The bench said the observations made by the high court in the case at hand regarding not sending the documents to the vigilance cell is not justified.
The respondents’ counsel had argued that Rana had forged and fabricated the documents to obtain her caste validity certificate. The bench said the parties appeared before the Scrutiny Committee and they were heard and after due consideration of all the material brought on record, the Scrutiny Committee, delineated the objections and passed the detailed order validating the caste certificate of the appellant.
The apex court said the Scrutiny Committee also extensively referred to the pedigree table of appellant tracing the genealogy of caste of appellant’s forefathers as ‘Mochi’. “The said fact was also affirmed by the Vigilance squad which made a personal site visit in Punjab and confirmed the truthfulness/genuineness of the contents of the pedigree documents from the locals as well as authorities concerned. Although the said documents were not admitted by the Scrutiny Committee for them not being in ‘complete form’, however, notably these documents were neither objected nor debated by the complainant”, said the apex court.
On February 28, the apex court had reserved its verdict on Lok Sabha MP Navneet Kaur Rana's plea challenging the Bombay High Court verdict cancelling her caste certificate.
In June 2021, the high court had said the 'Mochi' caste certificate was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents. The high court had also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on the Amravati MP. The high court had said the records indicated that she belonged to the 'Sikh-Chamar' caste. The high court had asked Rana to surrender the certificate within six weeks and asked her to pay the penalty of ₹ 2 lakh to the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority.
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