Bombay HC upholds scrutiny panel’s decision to invalidate Sena MLA’s caste certificate

“The petitioner’s father’s caste in his birth register is shown as “Koli”. It was a pre-Independence entry. The revenue record in the name of her grandfather shows his caste as “Hindu”. “Hindu” is not a caste. Her sisters’ caste in the school leaving certificates is also not shown as “Tokre Koli”. The petitioner has no case that she, her sisters, father or grandfather has ever attempted to correct in their school record,” the court observed.

The bench held that Sonawane “failed to prove” that she belongs to Tokre Koli tribe caste and impugned judgment by the committee is “well-reasoned order”. “Thus, it is not permissible for this court to interfere with such findings of fact in the writ petition. No interference is thus warranted. For the aforesaid reasons, we dismiss the petition,” the bench ruled.

The petitioner was elected as a corporator for Jalgaon Municipal Corporation on ST reserved seat and her caste certificate was forwarded to the committee for validation. Meanwhile, she contested in the 2019 Legislative Assembly election from the Chopda constituency and was elected. She then resigned from the corporator post. However, her caste claim, registered after her proposal for validation after her election was pending. The committee sought a vigilance report and called Sonawane to submit her explanation to the said report. However, instead of replying she insisted on deciding on her application for withdrawal of the proposal. Since she did not file her reply, the scrutiny committee invalidated her claim on November 4, 2020.

Thereafter, the MLA approached the HC challenging the committee’s decision, which ordered her to resubmit a caste certificate granted by a competent authority within seven days and ordered the validation process to be completed within four months.

Sonwane then challenged the HC order before the Supreme Court, which dismissed her special leave petition on December 7, 2021, and directed the committee to decide on the proceedings within four months from the date of order. Meanwhile, the HC also dismissed her plea seeking transfer of validation proceedings before the Nandurbar Committee.
Moreover, former MLA Jagdishchandra Ramesh Valvi filed an objection before the scrutiny committee over her stated caste. The committee, in February 2022, held that there were entries contrary to pre-Independence entries that showed her blood relatives belonging to the Tokre Koli caste and invalidated the caste certificate issued to her.