Bombay High Court upholds student’s tribal claim

Samriddhi Savale, the student who had to fight against the scrutiny committee’s order

A division bench of Bombay High Court at Aurangabad has come again in rescue of a girl whose claim to belong to schedule tribe was rejected by the scrutiny committee and thus threatened to jeopardise her education aspirations. It was the previous order of the High court which enabled the girl to pursue a science degree in computer applications even as the matter was being heard before it. The High Court has now ruled that her claim of belonging to a schedule tribe was true and thus paved the way for the aggrieved student who is now 20-year-old to pursue a Masters degree. The court has directed the Schedule Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nandurbar, to issue her caste validity certificate immediately from the date of passing their order on July 20 2024.

Yogesh Savale, Samriddhi's father

The case

Samriddhi Savale after passing out her HSC examination with first class faced hurdles when she tried to enroll for her first year Bsc (computer application) at SNDT College, Shahada taluka, Nandurbar, under the quota reserved schedule tribe. At the time of her admission, her application for her caste validity certificate was pending before the Schedule Tribe Certificate Scrutiny committee, Nandurbar. However, on the basis of the vigilance committee report to whom the verification work was assigned, the scrutiny committee rejected her application seeking caste validation certificate, which left her admission in the lurch. The college, subsequently, had notified her that her admission would stand cancelled on her failure to produce the certificate of validity.

Moved Court

Aggrieved, Samriddhi through her father Yogesh Savale, a state government employee, approached the bench of Bombay High Court, at Aurangabad by filing a writ petition in January 2022. They claimed that the scrutiny committee rejected the tribal claim of the petitioner from Tokre Koli Schedule tribe community, without considering important documents. Savale had produced documents of forefathers which were from the pre-Independence era that showed her family lineage.

When asked, how the petitioner could avail the reservation benefits till Std XII, without having a caste validity certificate, advocate Mohanish Thorat, who appeared for the petitioner said, "Till HSC, the students as they are minors may use the parent's caste certificate to avail the reservation benefits. However, after clearing HSC and to study further, it is mandatory to have the caste validation certificate, as per the norms in the name of the student and hence in this case Samriddhi had applied for the same."

Cleared graduation

In their interim order dated November 8, 2023, the division bench of Bombay High Court at Aurangabad, Justices Mangesh Patil and Neeraj Dhote directed that till the petition was being heard, her admission shall not be cancelled. Thus Samriddhi could continue her studies and complete her graduation in Bsc in 2024.

Appeared for MH-CET 2024

Meanwhile Samriddhi, who was keen to pursue her post graduation, appeared for MH-CET entrance examination this year, and thereby eligible for getting admission, under the reserved schedule tribe category and once again she would require the caste validity certificate. As her writ petition was already filed before the court, pending final hearing, advocate Thorat drew the attention of the court to the pending writ petition along with a civil application that he had moved last month. And after hearing all sides, the court finally passed an order in favour of Samriddhi.

Court passed final order

According to Advocate Thorat, "Interestingly, the court considered the view of oldest entries of her great forefathers from year 1905 onwards and even their death records, which was otherwise overlooked by the scrutiny committee. The court has now directed the scrutiny committee to issue the validity certificate of Tokre Koli schedule tribe, as she has proved her lineage to the said community by producing relevant documents."

Scrutiny committee order set aside

"In this case, the scrutiny committee's order created a lot of unwanted confusion, as it discounted the various records of the petitioner's forefathers that were presented to prove her belonging to the Tokre Koli schedule tribe. The division bench of Justices Mangesh Patil and Shailesh Brahme on July 20, minutely delved on each and every point raised in the order of the scrutiny committee and finally set it aside," said advocate Thorat.

"The order of the court will become a precedent especially in the state where about five percent of the population belongs to the Tokre Koli schedule tribe. Members of this community could now easily avail reservation benefits to the extent of education and service," said advocate Thorat.

Thankful to court

"I was hoping since 2018 that I may get a valid certificate within stipulated time, but when it was rejected, I was under tremendous stress about continuing with my studies. The college had given me an ultimatum to cancel my admission. I am thankful to the Bombay High Court bench at Aurangabad which directed the college to allow my admission and continue my studies, and this came in as a big relief. I have now completed my graduation and with the present order I can continue with my post-graduation studies, without any fear as the court has directed the scrutiny committee to issue my caste validity certificate immediately. I believe that justice has prevailed," said petitioner Samridhhi.

Justice prevailed

Yogesh Savale, father Samriddhi said, "In the year 2018, being a father of a college going daughter, I was unaware about the procedure and documents which are required to prove the Tribal claim. And despite being a state government employee, I had no clue about the procedural aspects. The journey of getting a validity certificate had been a learning lesson, in terms of even understanding people whom to trust and not to trust, as it was a jigsaw puzzle."

"Though, I did have an extract of the birth record of my great grandfather from the year 1905, but the scrutiny committee has not considered the same. At some point of time, I was about to lose my hope that I would not get any reasonable order from the scrutiny committee ," he said. He now hopes that other members of his community may also benefit from this order. "The recent order not only helps my daughter but also it will act as a precedent to others who may be trying to prove their claim of belonging to the Tokre Koli schedule tribe community," he said.

IMMEDIATE

Duration within which scrutiny committee has to issue certificate as per HC order