SC: Verify caste certificate of elected persons to avoid row

The Supreme Court has ruled that it is necessary to get the caste certificates of all the elected persons from reserved constituencies in the country examined within a time frame to avoid any controversies. A bench comprising Justices Tarun Chatterjee and V S Sirpurkar while allowing the appeal of Kurapati Maria Das, the chairperson of Bapatla Municipal Council, Andhra Pradesh, said, ‘it is necessary to get examined the caste certificate of all the elected persons from reserved constituencies within a time frame to avoid such controversies.’ ‘The Andhra High Court clearly erred firstly, entertaining the writ petition, secondly, in going into the disputed question of facts regarding the caste status, thirdly, in holding that the appellant did not belong to Schedule Caste and fourthly, in allowing the writ petition,’ they noted. Writing a 21-page judgment for the bench, Justice Sirpurkar also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the respondent namely Dr Ambedkar Seva Samajan and others, while setting aside the impugned judgment of the High Court and dismissing the writ petition filed by the ten respondents. The respondents had challenged the election of Mr Das as counselor in the elections held on September 24, 2005 from reserved ward number eight of Bapatla, on the grounds that his caste certificate was bogus. Mr Das had claimed that he belongs to SC category. The apex court disapproved the approach of the authorities in not deciding the representation made by the respondents challenging the genuineness of the caste certificate of Mr Das who was later elected as chairperson of the Bapatla Municipal Council. Representation was made on March 22, 2006 to SP Guntoor demanding investigation into the issue relating to appellant’s community status. Another complaint was made on April 14, 2006. The apex court also pulled up the petitioners for not seeking directions from the High Court to the authorities for speedy disposal of their complaints. According to the apex court, had it been done in time and the caste certificate found false and fraudulent, it could have been enough for the appellant to lose the post he was elected to.

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