Mumbai: In what can spell trouble for thousands of Maharashtra government employees recruited under the reserved category, the Bombay High Court recently ordered the state to initiate action against those, who have failed to furnish their caste validity certificates. The HC has accordingly ordered the government to file a detailed affidavit regarding the same.
A bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Riyaz Chagla passed the significant order while hearing a bunch of petitions seeking effective implementation of the laws pertaining to the verification and validation of caste certificates in Maharashtra.
The said law obliges a person seeking public employment not only to produce the caste or tribe certificate issued by a competent authority but after that is procured and produced before the government authority at the time of appointment against a reserved post. Then, this government authority has to forward the underlying claim for verification and scrutiny by the scrutiny committee, which validates or rejects the claim.
“If somebody who has secured appointment against a reserved seat, does not comply with the law by undergoing scrutiny and verification of his/her claim and producing the validity certificate then s/he must be penalised,” the bench said.
“In the instant case, if the grievance is that the appointment is secured but without such a validity certificate being produced, or the certificate applied for but rejected and yet the appointment is continuing in the reserved seat, then it is for the state government to establish complete connectivity with the scrutiny committee or ensure that its employees produce such a certificate before their retirement,” Justice Dharmadhikari said.
The bench further opined that it is necessary to get such validation before the retirement so that the government is not obliged to pay pension and retiral benefits to somebody who is not a genuine Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST).
“If at all the government is serious about all this, it will enact measures otherwise every bogus caste certificate holder will escape the consequences of the law,” the bench noted.
The bench accordingly ordered the government to place on record, the data of the employees, who have secured employment against reserved posts and have applied for scrutiny and verification or if the application is pending or decided and a certificate is produced or not.
“Such a record has to be maintained by the concerned offices or departments of the government. The information can be collected by the secretary in the tribal development department and the social justice for SC ST department to maintain such records and update them from time to time,” the bench said.
The bench further noted the contention of the petitioners, who claimed, on affidavit, that there are thousands of officers who do not belong to the either of the SC-ST categories but by fraudulent means have obtained the caste certificate and continue to enjoy the benefit of the promotional posts.
“Let this aspect be also investigated,” Justice Dharmadhikari ordered while posting the matter for further hearing on March 2.
