Normally this court is slow in interfering with the disciplinary proceedings at this stage. But, however, in this case, it is not in dispute that the caste certificate issued to the petitioner basing on her inter-caste marriage in the year 1979 with late Rajendran who admittedly belonged to Scheduled Tribe is not yet cancelled. Though issuance of caste certificate and cancellation thereof in case of fraud and its procurement by wrongful means is governed by several orders issued from time to time by the Government, but, in the year 1993, Act 16 of 1993 was brought into force with a primary intention to consolidate the issue of Community Certificates relating to persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes and matters connected therewith and incidental thereto. Under the said Act, specific power is conferred only on the District Collector for cancellation of caste certificate. In this case, it is not in dispute that the caste certificate was obtained by the petitioner from the then competent authority and the same is in force and not cancelled by the competent authority i.e. the District Collector by following the procedure contemplated under Section 5 of Act 16 of 1993. As long as the said certificate issued to the petitioner is not cancelled, the said certificate has to be treated as a valid one and it is not open for the employer to decide the correctness of such certificate issued to the petitioner. When the statute confers power on a particular authority, the said authority alone is competent to take action for cancellation and no other
