On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that inquiry into caste certificates can only be reopened when there is fraud or if it was issued without proper inquiry.
As per the Bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and L Nageswara Rao, the purpose of caste certificate verification by scrutiny committees was to avoid bogus and false claims.
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This judgement was passed in an Appeal by a Scheduled Caste Government employee (J Chitra) against whom Dr Ambedkar Service Association filed a complaint regarding her caste certificate.
After an inquiry, the District Level Vigilance Committee upheld the validity of the appellant’s certificate, and the Committee’s decision was not challenged in any forum.
After that, another complaint was filed, and the appellant was subjected to an inquiry by the State Level Scrutiny Committee that sent the matter back to the District Vigilance Committee. After scrutiny, the District Committee cancelled the caste certificate.
The appellant filed an appeal in the Madras High Court, but the same was rejected. Aggrieved, the appellant moved to the Supreme Court.
According to the Apex Court, recognition of community certificates issued to the appellant by the District Committee had become final. The State Scrutiny Committee did not have the jurisdiction to reopen the case and send it back to the District Vigilance Committee for fresh consideration.
The Bench placed reliance on a Government Order dated 12th September 2007, which states that the State Level Scrutiny Committee is not permitted to reopen cases that have become final.
Therefore, the Court ordered that the State Level Scrutiny Committee reopen matters related to caste certificate, which was approved by the District Vigilance Committee in 1999. There was no appeal filed against the decision as well.
Accordingly, the Court allowed the appeal and set aside the District Vigilance Committee’s 2008 order.
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