A division bench of the Bombay High Court at Aurangabad has once again come to the rescue of a girl whose claim of belonging to a scheduled tribe was rejected by the scrutiny committee, which threatened to jeopardise her educational aspirations. It was the previous order of the high court that enabled the girl to pursue a science degree in computer applications even as the matter was being heard before it. The HC has now ruled that her claim of belonging to a scheduled tribe was true and thus paved the way for the student to pursue a Master’s degree. The court has directed the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nandurbar, to issue her caste validity certificate immediately.
Yogesh Savale, Samriddhi’s father
The case
Samriddhi Savale after passing out her HSC exam with a first class faced hurdles when she tried to enrol for her first year Bsc (computer application) at SNDT College, Shahada taluka, Nandurbar, under the quota for reserved scheduled tribe. At the time of her admission, her application for her caste validity certificate was pending before the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee. However, on the basis of the vigilance committee report to whom the verification work was assigned, the scrutiny committee rejected her application seeking a caste validation certificate, which left her admission in the lurch. The college, subsequently, notified her that her admission would stand cancelled if she failed to produce the certificate.
Moved court
Samriddhi through her father Yogesh Savale, a state government employee, approached the bench of HC, at Aurangabad by filing a writ petition in January 2022. They claimed that the scrutiny committee rejected the tribal claim of the petitioner from Tokre Koli Schedule tribe community, without considering important documents. Savale had produced documents of forefathers which were from the pre-Independence era that showed her family lineage.
When asked how the petitioner could avail the reservation benefits till Std XII without having a caste validity certificate, advocate Mohanish Thorat, who appeared for the petitioner said, “Till HSC, the students as they are minors may use the parent’s caste certificate. However, after that it is mandatory to have the caste validation certificate in the name of the student.”
Cleared graduation
In their interim order dated November 8, 2023, the division bench of Bombay High Court at Aurangabad, Justice Mangesh Patil and Justice Neeraj Dhote directed that till the petition was being heard, her admission shall not be cancelled. Thus Samriddhi could continue her studies and complete her graduation in BSc in 2024.
Appeared for MH-CET 2024
Meanwhile, Samriddhi, who was keen to pursue her post-graduation, appeared for the MH-CET entrance examination this year, and was eligible for admission under the reserved schedule tribe category, which would require the caste certificate. As her writ petition was already filed before the court, pending final hearing, advocate Thorat drew the attention of the court to the pending writ petition along with a civil application that he had moved last month. And after hearing all sides, the court finally passed an order in favour of Samriddhi.
Committee order set aside
“In this case, the scrutiny committee’s order created a lot of unwanted confusion, as it discounted the various records of the petitioner’s forefathers that were presented to prove her belonging to the Tokre Koli schedule tribe. The division bench of Justice Mangesh Patil and Justice Shailesh Brahme on July 20, minutely checked each and every point raised in the order of the scrutiny committee and finally set it aside,” said advocate Thorat.
“The order of the court will become a precedent especially in the state where about five per cent of the population belongs to the Tokre Koli scheduled tribe. Members of this community could now easily avail reservation benefits to the extent of education and service,” said advocate Thorat. “I believe that justice has prevailed,” said petitioner Samridhhi.
Justice prevailed
Yogesh Savale, father Samriddhi said, “In 2018, I was unaware about the procedure and documents required to prove tribal claim. And despite being a state government employee, I had no clue about the procedural aspects. The journey of getting a validity certificate had been a learning lesson, in terms of even understanding people whom to trust and not to trust, as it was a jigsaw puzzle.”
IMMEDIATE
Duration within which scrutiny committee has to issue certificate as per HC order
