- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The High Court of Judicature at Bombay has while dismissing Writ Petition No.1810 of 2008 filed by the appellant herein refused to interfere with the order dated 20th February, 2008 passed by the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati. The Committee in turn had declared that the appellant was a 'Koshti' by Caste and not a 'Halba' which is a notified Scheduled Tribe. The facts giving rise to the present appeal lie in a narrow compass and may be summarised as under: Shri Shivaji High School, Dongaon, of which respondent No.5 happens to be the Head Master, invited applications in terms of advertisement dated 20th July, 1995 against three vacant posts of teachers in the said school. One each of these two posts was reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Candidates. The third post was ostensibly in open category and required a minimum qualification of B.P.Ed., which the appellant herein did not possess. The appellant claiming to be a 'Halba' applied for the solitary post reserved for the Scheduled Tribe candidates and was appointed as a low grade co-teacher in the pay scale of Rs.1200-2040 with effect from 1st August, 1995 or the date she joined the said post. The appointment was on probation for an initial period of two years which was duly approved by the Zila Parishad Education Officer in terms of his order dated 12th July, 1996. It is not in dispute that the appellant satisfactorily completed the period of probation and was confirmed in service as an Assistant Teacher in due course. A decade after her initial appointment, respondent No.5 asked the appellant to get her caste credentials verified from the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee. The appellant complied with the said direction and submitted her certificate to the Committee concerned, which in turn forwarded it for a proper vigilance inquiry. In the course of the said inquiry, the school record of the appellant was also looked into which showed that the appellant's father was a 'Koshti' by caste which caste was not a Scheduled Tribe in Maharashtra. The Committee, therefore, concluded that the Caste Certificate of the appellant was invalid and accordingly cancelled the same. This led to the school passing an Order dated 23rd February, 2008 whereby the services of the appellant were terminated with immediate effect. The termination Order said: " ..You were appointed on the post reserved for candidate of Scheduled Tribes. At the time of appointment you produced certificate showing that you belong to the category of Scheduled Tribes. There after the said Certificate was sent for verification to the Caste Scrutiny Committee. The said Committee after giving opportunity of hearing and adducing of evidence decided the enquiry and came to the conclusion that you do not belong to the category as mentioned in the certificate produced by you and consequently invalidated the caste certificate produced by you are not entitled to continue on the post as the post is reserved for the candidate of Scheduled Tribes Community." Aggrieved by the above, the appellant filed an appeal before the School Tribunal under Section 9 of the Maharashtra Employees of Private School (Condition of Service) Regulation Act, 1977 which failed and was dismissed by the Tribunal by its order dated 25th September, 2008. The appellant then preferred a writ petition before the High Court of Nagpur challenging the order passed by the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee invalidating her caste claim. The High Court saw no reason to interfere and dismissed the said petition by the order impugned before us. The High Court observed: "... neither the petitioner personally nor through her agent appeared before the Caste Scrutiny Committee nor submitted any reply to the Vigilance Cell Inquiry Report. Perusal of the order of Caste Scrutiny Committee further reveals that the Vigilance Cell collected the document dated 18.10.1956 i.e., extract of School entry in respect of father of the petitioner, wherein caste of father of the petitioner mentioned as "Koshti". Similarly, the another document collected by the Vigilance Cell further shows that the petitioner does not belong to "Halba" Scheduled Tribe. Petitioner also failed to establish affinity with the "Halba" Scheduled Tribe. In the circumstances, the conclusion arrived at by the Caste Scrutiny Committee is just and proper and needs no interference."
(3.) The present appeal assails the correctness of the above order as already noticed.;