PANAJI
The State government has reconstituted a Scrutiny Committee for verification of caste certificates, issued by the Deputy Collector and Sub Divisional Officer (SDOs) to avail the benefits of caste-based reservation.
The three-member scrutiny committee is headed by the Secretary of department of social welfare, Director Social Welfare and Rajan Satardekar as its members. The Committee has verified the caste certificates issued to persons belonging to the Scheduled Caste as per the directives of the Supreme Court.
The Committee was constituted after the Bombay High Court at Goa in June pulled up the State for failing to put in place a mechanism to verify the caste certificates, as directed by the Supreme Court. The Court had granted three months time to the State to complete the scrutiny.
The Supreme Court had laid down the detailed procedure for verifying caste certificates. In this regard, the procedure is to be applied by the concerned State government in the absence of any legislation.
The High Court had recently quashed the OBC certificate issued to AAP Benaulim ZP member Hanzel Fernandes stating that Christian Mesta community is not notified under OBC.
One Tarak Arolkar, a councillor at a local municipal council, whose caste certificate was set aside by the scrutiny committee, had moved the High Court, wherein the Court observed that there is “no mechanism in the State” to ensure the verification of the caste status of those availing the benefits of caste-based reservation as was mandated by the Supreme Court in the Kumari Madhuri Patil case of 1995.
