Caste certificate: HC refuses to relax vigilance report norm

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to stay yesterday's order holding that report from the Vigilance Cell is mandatory for issuance of caste validity certificate for the upcoming civic elections.

The division bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar termed as "disturbing" the fact that in number of cases the caste scrutiny committee had issued validity certificate without following the procedure, which requires submission of vigilance report.

The court had yesterday said that it was mandatory to follow the procedure laid down by the Supreme Court, which requires that scrutiny committee issue the certificate only after obtaining a vigilance report on the caste claim.

Maharashtra government sought a review of the order today. Government counsel Ravi Kadam told the court that the scrutiny of nominations for civic polls was to be completed by Thursday, and the order may result in rejection of the most nominations.

"There is apprehension that there will be no election or representation in some of the wards as there is no time now to follow the procedure," Kadam said. The State Election Commission too submitted that it would ask the candidates to file personal affidavits stating that their certificates are factually correct.

The High Court, while refusing to stay yesterday's order, permitted certain relaxations. It said if objections are raised, then the burden would be on the candidate to prove that his validity certificate is based on a vigilance report.

The court noted that about 7,000 certificates have been issued by the committee in the last few months, of which 6,300 have been issued without the vigilance cell report. The state government has indicated that it will move the Supreme Court in appeal tomorrow.