Should a caste certificate be taken as the last word on a caste claim or is it open to the Caste Scrutiny Committee to examine its genuineness? The Supreme Court upheld the latter position, holding that it is necessary to ensure that only the genuinely disadvantaged get the benefits of reservation.

“Constitution of India provides for protective discrimination and reservation so as to enable the disadvantaged group to come on the same platform as that of the forward community. If and when a person takes an undue advantage of the said beneficent provision of the Constitution by obtaining the benefits of reservation and other benefits provided under the Presidential Order although he is not entitled thereto, he not only plays a fraud on society but in effect and substance plays a fraud on the Constitution,” said a bench of Justices S B Sinha and Dalveer Bhandari. “...It is entirely incorrect to contend that the State shall be helpless spectator in the matter,” the court ruled.

The Apex Court was hearing an appeal against a Bombay High Court order striking down the decision of the State Caste Scrutiny Committee against a man who had gained employment in the ST category. Though the employee claimed to belong to the Thakur community falling within the list of STs in the state, the Committee found that he actually was a Kshatriya Thakur. Consequently, his caste certificate was cancelled.

Against this, the employee approached the Bombay HC, which stayed the committee’s decision. The HC also held that the committee could satisfy itself only on the basis of documentary evidence and that it should not adduce any oral evidence. Further, it directed that the job of scrutiny of caste certificates should be entrusted to judicial officers and not bureaucrats who made up the CSC.

... contd.