Shankar Prakash Koskewad v. the State of Maharashtra through Its Principal Secretary and Others
Scheduled Tribe certificate validation – Scrutiny Committee
Case brief
What is this about?
Bombay High Court (Aurangabad Bench), 14.02.2025, Mangesh S. Patil & Prafulla S. Khubalkar JJ (per court): batch of seven writ petitions (W.P. Nos. 2224, 2228, 2239, 2241, 2244, 2245 and 2254 of 2025) by Sudhakar Basappa, Sarika Malleshu, Dattaprasad Pralhad, Pralhad Vitthalrao, Ganesh Gangadhar, Govind Digambar and Shankar Prakash Koskewad against scrutiny-committee refusal to validate 'Mannervarlu' Scheduled Tribe certificates; refusals quashed by following this Court's earlier judgment dated 09.09.2024 in W.P. No. 9883/2024 (Ashlesha, daughter of Govind Digambar Koskewad) founded on the same common vigilance report; conditional validity certificates directed; no equities claimable; State of Maharashtra represented by various AGPs.
What did the court decide?
Impugned scrutiny-committee judgments and orders quashed and set aside; committee directed to immediately issue certificates of validity to each petitioner as belonging to 'Mannervarlu' Scheduled Tribe, conditional upon the final outcome of the matters of the validity holders which the committee has decided to reopen; petitioners not entitled to claim equities