The High Court dismissed the writ petition seeking a Scheduled Tribe certificate as the petitioner failed to produce conclusive documents to prove his community status, despite an ethnological report and relatives' statements which could not be verified.
Liberty granted to file appeal before the State Level Scrutiny Committee.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
W.P.No.32310 of 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED: 27.03.2024
CORAM:
THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S.S.SUNDAR AND
THE HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE N.SENTHILKUMAR
W.P.No.32310 of 2023
Kaliyappan S/o Govindan
.. Petitioner
-vs-
Salem, Tamil Nadu 636 001
Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for issuance of a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, calling for the records relating to Na.Ka.No.28189/2022/Thi.A dated 19.08.2023 issued by the 1st respondent and quash the same and to consequently direct the 2nd respondent to issue ST-Kurumans community certificate to the petitioner and his family members, viz., (1) V.Selvi, (2) K.Uthirakumar and (3) S.Ranjana.
For Petitioner :: Mrs.K.Nithyashree
Page 1 of 5
W.P.No.32310 of 2023
For Respondents :: Mr.R.Vigneswaran Government Advocate
ORDER
(Order of the Court was made by S.S.SUNDAR,J.)
This Court examined the case of the petitioner in detail. The petitioner has produced a few documents before the District Collector, upon which the District Collector was unable to uphold the claim regarding the petitioner's community status that he belongs to 'Kurumans' – Scheduled Tribe community. No document(s) which would clinchingly prove the community status of the petitioner, has been produced before the District Collector. This Court perused the documents filed before the District Collector and is unable to find any document or verifiable material produced by the petitioner before the District Collector.
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W.P.No.32310 of 2023
petitioner before the District Collector, the impugned order of the District Collector reveals that summons were issued to the two individuals, who are stated to be his blood relatives. Despite repeated summons being issued, those two individuals have not appeared before the District Collector to corroborate the statement of the petitioner. The statement of one of the persons is relied upon by the learned counsel before this Court. When the individuals concerned failed to appear, we cannot find fault with the District Collector refusing to look into the statement of the individuals, produced by the petitioner before the District Collector. Similarly, the ethnological report relied upon by the petitioner may be of some assistance to the petitioner, only if the enquiry is in connection with the petitioner's application. Therefore, none of the documents produced by the petitioner before this Court can be safely relied upon to sustain the petitioner's claim.
petitioner may be given an opportunity to file a statutory appeal before the State Level Scrutiny Committee.
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W.P.No.32310 of 2023
admits that as against the order of District Collector, the petitioner has an effective alternative remedy of approaching the State Level Scrutiny Committee.
Index : yes/no (S.S.S.R.,J.) (N.S.,J.) Neutral citation : yes/no 27.03.2024 ss
To
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W.P.No.32310 of 2023
S.S.SUNDAR,J. AND N.SENTHILKUMAR,J.
ss
W.P.No.32310 of 2023
27.03.2024
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1 issue framed by the court
Whether the petitioner substantiated his claim to Scheduled Tribe community status with verifiable documents?
1 provisions across 1 enactments
Kaliyappan S/o Govindan
The District Collector, Salem District
The Revenue Divisional Officer Mettur, Salem District
S.S. Sundar
N. Senthilkumar
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
