Bombay HC cancels caste certificate of Amravati MP Navneet Rana

Mumbai/Amravati:The Bombay High Court on Tuesday cancelled the caste certificate issued to Amravati Lok Sabha member Navneet Kaur Rana, saying it was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents.

A division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and V G Bisht also imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh, which she needs to pay to the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority within a period of two weeks and directed her to surrender the certificate within six weeks

The HC noted that the claim of the caste made by Navneet Rana for obtaining the Scheduled Caste certificate itself was fraudulent and made with an intention to obtain various benefits available to a candidate from such category, despite knowing she does not belong to that caste.

"The application (for caste certificate) was made intentionally to make a fraudulent claim to enable the respondent no.3 (Rana) to contest the election for the post of Member of Parliament on a seat reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate," the HC court said in its judgement.

"In our view, since respondent no.3 has obtained the caste certificate fraudulently and got it validated fraudulently from the Caste Scrutiny Committee by producing fabricated and fraudulent documents, such caste certificate is cancelled and stands confiscated," the bench said.

It is needless to observe that all the consequences in law providing upon cancellation of such fraudulently obtained caste certificate and caste validity certificate shall follow, the bench added.

The court in its judgement also noted the "abysmal" functioning of the scrutiny committee.

The HC passed its order on a petition filed by social worker Anandrao Adsule, seeking for cancellation of the caste certificate dated August 30, 2013 issued by Mumbai Deputy Collector.

Adsule later filed a complaint with the Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, which ruled in favour of Rana and validated her caste certificate.Adsule then approached the high court.

The petitioner's case was that Rana obtained the caste certificate using forged and fabricated documents.

It claimed the certificate was obtained under the influence of Navneet Rana's husband Ravi Rana, who was an MLA.

The HC said the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee validating Navneet Rana's caste certificate was totally perverse, without the application of mind and contrary to the evidence on record.

The bench further noted that the original birth certificate of Navneet Rana did not mention the caste.

"A wrong caste validity certificate granted in favour of the party who does not belong to that caste may deprive a genuine and deserving person belonging to such reserve category of the caste of the benefits prescribed in the Constitution of India," the court said in its order.

The scrutiny committee did its job rather sloppily and shirked the obligations imposed on it, the HC observed.

"The scrutiny committee has totally ignored the objections raised by the complainant and also by the Vigilance Cell in respect of the documents submitted by Navneet Rana to support her claim", it said.

It said the scrutiny committee allowed the caste claim in favour of Navneet Rana even though she failed to discharge her burden by producing authentic and clear evidence.

The HC noted that the core function of the scrutiny committee while verifying caste certificates is the investigation carried out by its vigilance cell.

"The scrutiny committee is not an adjudicating authority but an administrative body that verifies facts, investigates into a specific claim of caste status and ascertains whether the caste/tribe status claim is correct or not," the court said.

Navneet Rana was elected from Maharashtra's Amravati Lok Sabha seat in 2019. She is an Independent MP supported by the NCP.(UNI)