Sans proper investigation, fake caste claim is no ground for sacking: Hyderabad HC

Lakshmana Rao was inducted into railway service in 1996 under Scheduled Tribe (ST) quota. He claimed that he belonged to Bentho Oriya community of STs.
Hyderabad High Court. (File photo)
Hyderabad High Court. (File photo)

HYDERABAD: Finding fault with the authorities concerned for failing to follow the required procedure in dismissing an employee from service for allegedly securing appointment in the railways by submitting a fake caste certificate, a division bench of the High Court has made it clear that it is mandatory for the district collector concerned to conduct a proper enquiry if the veracity of the caste certificates issued to SCs and STs is in doubt. When the caste certificate was not cancelled by way of a notification in the district gazette, the question of railways holding that the person had secured employment on the strength of fraudulent caste certificate does not arise, it ruled.

The bench, comprising justices P V Sanjay Kumar and P Keshava Rao, was dismissing a petition filed by the secretary to ministry of railways and the authorities of South Central Railway against an order of the Hyderabad bench of Central Administrative Tribunal in suspending the order issued by the railway authorities dismissing one S Lakshmana Rao from service alleging that he had got the job by submitting fake caste certificate.

Lakshmana Rao was inducted into railway service in 1996 under Scheduled Tribe (ST) quota. He claimed that he belonged to Bentho Oriya community of STs. In 2004, the district collector of Srikakulam informed the railways that the caste certificate produced by Rao did not find place in the office records. The MRO, in his report, said that Rao belonged to Vaddi caste which is in BC-A category. Thereupon, the railway authorities recorded that the said employee had acquired appointment in railways by fraudulent means by submitting a fake certificate, and accordingly dismissed him from service in 2011.

Rao moved the tribunal which suspended the dismissal order. It held that the collector was not at all involved in the actual exercise though Section 5  of the Act of 1993 mandates that it is the collector who is to inquire into  the  correctness of a caste certificate and cancel the same by way of a  notification he if finds that it was obtained fraudulently. Aggrieved by the tribunal order, railway authorities approached the High Court in 2014.

The counsel for railways said the employee had obtained a false caste certificate from the Tekkali MRO who later  found that Lakshmana Rao’s caste was Vaddi and not Bentho Oriya (ST) as claimed by him. Moreover, the  certificate details was not in the office records.

The bench upheld the order of the tribunal and dismissed the petition of the railways saying that the tribunal was correct in its finding that the unorthodox approach adopted by the district collector in asking the MRO to hold an inquiry did not have any value.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com