PANAJI
In a major relief to businessman-politician Tarak Arolkar, the High Court of Bombay at Goa has quashed the order of the Department of Urban Development disqualifying him as a councillor following the cancellation of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificate, based on which he had contested the civic polls on a reserved seat.
Arolkar had filed a Writ Petition challenging the Caste Scrutiny Committee's (CSC) order in May declining to verify the Caste Certificate issued by the Deputy Collector of Mapusa, which certified that he belonged to “Bhandari Naik Community” - declared OBC. Arolkar also challenged the order by the Director of Urban Development disqualifying/unseating him as a councillor from Ward no 7 of Mapusa Municipal Council based on the CSC order.
During the hearing, senior advocate S Kantak, appearing for the petitioner submitted that the vigilance report favoured Arolkar, confirming that he belonged to Bhandari Naik Community.
“If the Director found that the report or the particulars given were false or fraudulently obtained, the procedure… involving the issue of a show cause notice should have been followed but no such procedure was followed, and no such show cause notice was given,” he argued.
Therefore, the counsel submitted that CSC abdicated its duties by even refusing to consider the voluminous material on record establishing the social status of the petitioner.
The Bench of Justice M S Sonak and Justice B P Deshpande noted that a case is made to quash the CSC’s order inter alia 'on grounds of violating principles of natural justice and fair play and unreasonableness, which is the failure to consider vital and relevant material on record by the CSC.'
“The impugned order is also vitiated due to non-application of mind and posing of incorrect questions. In this case, the CSC's approach was contrary to the decisions of the Supreme Court and this Court in such matters. For all the above reasons, the CSC’s impugned order is quashed and set aside. However, this will not prevent the respondents from revisiting the issue of the petitioner's caste claim, provided such revisiting is in accordance with the law and in compliance with the principles of natural justice and fair play,” reads the order.
The Bench further observed that since CSC's order is set aside, the Director's impugned order will not survive and will have to be set aside.
The Court also directed the State Government to consider within three months from June 27 steps necessary to require persons availing of reservation benefits based upon provisional Caste Certificates issued by the Deputy Collector to get the same verified by the CSC following the directives of the Supreme Court. The government has been directed to also file a necessary compliance report to the High Court.
