R.K.DESHPANDE,J. - (1.) The claim of the petitioners for grant of Validity Certificate for "Mana" Scheduled Tribe category, which is an entry at Serial No.18 in the Constitution Scheduled Tribe Order has been rejected by the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee at Gadchiroli Division, Nagpur by an order dated 31.5.2013 and the Caste certificate issued by Sub-Divisional Officer, Warora on 25.11.2010 has been cancelled and confiscated. This is the subject matter of challenge in these petition.
(2.) Before the Committee, the petitioners placed on record total nine documents, all showing the caste of the petitioners and their blood relatives as "Mana". Police Vigilance Cell conducted home inquiry and found three more documents and also found that the documents produced by the petitioners and their relatives are correct. The Committee records the finding that the documentary evidence clearly shows the caste of the petitioners and their forefathers, consistently recorded as 'Mana' in their school and revenue records during the period from 1932-33 to 2008. In spite of this position, the Committee applied the affinity test and rejected the documents recording the reasons as under : (a) that 'Mana' community was included in the list of Scheduled Tribes in relation to the State of Maharashtra for the first time in the year 1960, that too in the specified area only, and the petitioner has failed to establish that he or his forefathers hail from the said area and migrated to the present place of their residence, from the said specified scheduled area, (b) that there are non-tribal communities like 'Badwaik Mana', 'Khand Mana', 'Kshatriya Mana', 'Kunbi Mana', 'Maratha Mana', 'Gond Mana', 'Mani'/'Mane', etc., and the petitioner has failed to satisfy crucial affinity test to establish that he belongs to 'Mana, Scheduled Tribe', which is an entry at Serial No.18 in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, (c) that in the year 1967, 'Mana' community was included in the list of Other Backward Classes at Serial No.268 and later on in the list of Special Backward Classes at Serial No.2 in relation to the State of Maharashtra, and (d) that the documents produced simply indicate the caste as 'Mana' and not 'Mana, Scheduled Tribe'.
(3.) In the decision of this Court in Writ Petition No.3308 of 2013 [Gajanan s/o Pandurang Shende v. The Head-Master, Govt. Ashram School, Dongargaon Salod, Tah. Sindewahi, Distt. Chandrapur, and others] decided on 8-11-2017, we have dealt with all the aforesaid reasoning and we point out below what we have held in the said decision :;