AAP to challenge HC judgment nullifying Hanzel OBC certificate

PANAJI

A day after the Bombay High Court at Goa nullified the OBC certificate issued to AAP zilla panchayat member Hanzel Fernandes, the party has decided to challenge the judgment before the Supreme Court stating that the ruling will have “far reaching implications on the entire Christian Mesta community”.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, AAP Goa President Amit Palekar said that the judgment specifically states that the Christian Mesta community are not part of OBC, as per the government notification and hence the OBC certificate issued is null and void.

“This judgment has got far reaching implications on the entire Christian Mesta community, who were identified as OBC by the government and issued caste certificates all this while. The judgment will nullify even those OBC certificates obtained by students for admissions at various professional courses and even for government jobs,” Palekar said.

He said that the High Court has ruled that wherever there is no reference to the inclusion of a Christian counterpart in the list of OBC, it must be held that the Government did not intend to include such a Christian counterpart in the State list of OBCs.

“This clearly indicates that the admissions or jobs obtained by producing OBC certificates by the candidates from the Christian Mesta community are null and void. Even the benefits obtained of various government schemes stand nullified,” Palekar pointed out.

The party has sought intervention of the State government to protect the interest of the community. “We are challenging the judgment not just from the perspective of Hanzel but from the perspective of protecting the interest of this community,” he said.

Palekar said that the government should immediately issue a corrigendum or amendment to the notification, with retrospective effect, to include the community in the list of OBC. “If government can appoint the most expensive senior counsel to challenge Tiger reserve judgment, then it should also appoint a counsel to protect the interest of this community,” he demanded.

AAP Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas pointed out that the OBC certificates have been issued to this community since 2010. He also said that several representations were made to the successive State governments, since 2006 seeking clarity on the issue.

The High Court asserted that neither the Deputy Collector nor the Caste Scrutiny Committee (CSC) has the right or authority to tinker with the Government notification or the State list of OBCs.

A resident of Panaji, Uday Chari had filed writ petition in the High Court, submitting that the Government notification dated 29.12.2006 only includes “Vishwakarma/Chari/Mesta” in the State list of OBC community and submitted that it does not either include or clarify that this entry will also include Christian Vishwakarma/Chari/Mesta.