HC quashes caste scrutiny committee’s decision, restores Rashmi Barve’s status

Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday ruled in favour of former Congress nominee from Ramtek Lok Sabha seat, Rashmi Barve, quashing the March 28 decision of the Caste Scrutiny Committee (CSC) that revoked her caste validity certificate.
A division bench comprising Justices Avinash Gharote and Mukulika Jawalkar ordered the committee to issue a new validity certificate, confirming her Scheduled Caste status and directed it to pay Barve a compensation of ₹1 lakh within a week for the distress caused.
"We feel it our duty to strongly deprecate the conduct of CSC, who, instead of acting independently, dispassionately and within the Caste Certificate Act, 2000, has conducted the inquiry in a manner which no court of the land can accept," the judges said.
"CSC has merely acted as a lackey of the administration. We feel it our duty to saddle a cost of ₹1 lakh upon CSC, so that this would act as a deterrent for dancing to the tune of someone else, instead of performing its statutory functions within the statute," they added.
Barve was Congress nominee from Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency before her caste certificate was rejected by the caste scrutiny committee of the state social justice and special assistance department, alleging she had obtained it on the basis of fake documents. Subsequently, she was disqualified from contesting polls by the returning officer. She had challenged the rejection of her caste certificate by the caste panel in HC through counsel — Shailesh Narnavare and Sameer Sonawane.