“Mere cross at entrance and Bust of Jesus inside house is no basis to discard claim for Hindu Mahar scheduled caste certificate: Bombay HC”, Verdictum, July 22, 2023:

“While allowing a petition challenging the order passed by the Divisional Caste Scrutiny Committee constituted under the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Denotified Tribes (VimuktaJatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Act, 2000 in a proceeding under section 7, refuting the claim of the petitioner as belonging to Hindu Mahar scheduled caste, the Bombay High Court directed the Committee to issue a caste validity certificate to the petitioner as Hindu Mahar within two weeks.

The Division Bench comprising of Justice Mangesh S. Patil and Justice Shailesh P. Brahme held that “The petitioner has been married apparently according to Hindu rites. Photographs were made available to the scrutiny committee. The revenue record at least referred to the petitioner’s grandfather as Mahar way back in the year 1929 and except for the cross having been painted at the entrance and the finding of a bust of Jesus Christ inside the house, there was no material before the committee to discard the petitioner’s claim. The observations and conclusions of the committee are perverse, arbitrary, and capricious.”

The Bench stated that in a reply to the vigilance cell report, the petitioner had expressly admitted about burials had taken place in her family but she had expressly mentioned that such was a ritual being followed even in her Mahar caste…..”

Read the full article at Verdictum.in