Initiate criminal proceedings against fake community certificate holders: Madas HC tells TN govt

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the State to initiate appropriate action to curb the generation of false community certificates, especially of the Scheduled Tribes, which are available on the black market. The court observed that such issues defeat the objective of reservation.

A division bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and K Rajasekar noted that a big racket is under way as people are tempted to secure an ST certificate and directed that such approaches must be thwarted and persons who obtained fake community certificates are liable to be prosecuted under criminal law.

The bench held that genuineness in granting of reservation under the Constitution must be protected: "Only persons who are all genuinely ST alone are entitled to avail the benefits of reservation in public employment, welfare and schemes."

The bench directed that the authenticity of the community certificate must be verified by the competent authority even when a reference certificate is produced. The reference document must also be verified by the authorities, and in case any certificate is found to be incorrect or bogus, action to cancel the certificate and prosecute the involved offenders must be initiated, the bench said.

The court made the observations while hearing the plea moved by V Samburanam, who claims to belong to the Kurumans community, an ST community, and sought the issuance of an ST certificate to her children.

Her application to the revenue divisional officer, Tirupattur, in January 2022 was rejected, and it was upheld by the district collector, prompting her to move the HC.

As her brother and his son secured an ST certificate, she said she should be extended the same benefit based on her kin's document.

Special government pleader A Selvendran submitted that Samburanam's son has already received an MBC community certificate, which is still in force, hence, they cannot claim an ST certificate.

After all the submissions, the bench directed the collector of Tirupattur to issue necessary instructions to all the revenue divisional officers to ensure that the ST certificates issued doubtfully are reviewed and all appropriate actions are taken to ascertain the veracity of the certificates and launch criminal prosecution if any bogus certificate is found.