Gujarat legislator sees his 'tribal' certificate invalidated again

Independent legislator from Gujarat's Morva Hadaf constituency reserved for tribal community, Bhupendrasinh Khant, found himself at the receiving end again as a government scrutiny committee for the second time invalidated his caste certificate, which declared him a tribal.

The committee, headed by Tribal Development Commissioner R J Makadia, on Tuesday invalidated Khant's caste certificate after going through the documents submitted by him in support of his claim. The   committee is said to have found the legislator's certificates were not conforming with the parameters laid down by the central government.

Khant, who was hoping to get a Congress ticket in the recent elections, contested as an independent after the Congress vacated the seat under a pre-election seat-sharing understanding with tribal strongman Chhotu Vasava's Bharatiya Tribal Party. Khant had won the Morva Hadaf constituency in Panchamahal district by defeating BJP's Vikramsinh Dindor by over 4,000 votes in the December 2017 Assembly elections. He had later announced his decision to join Congress.

However, before the elections took place, several complaints reached the tribal commissioner about validity of his tribal certificate. The five-member scrutiny committee invalidated his caste certificate in January, much after he was elected as a legislator from this seat reserved for the Scheduled Tribe community.

Khant approached the Gujarat High Court, which quashed the order of the Tribal Development Commissioner and asked Khant to approach the committee once again with documents supporting his claim. Khant had stated in court that he had not been given an opportunity to put forward his case before the Commission.

Despite Khant having submitted over 200 pages of documentary evidence to support his claim, the scrutiny committee declared his caste certificate invalid.

Khant is expected to approach the Gujarat High Court as his election may be disqualified by the Election Commission.