MHC directs TN to implement apex court directions scrutinizing community certificate
The bench directed the State to issue a fresh community certificate to the petitioner and posted the matter to February 26 for compliance with court order.
Madras High Court
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the State to implement the directions given by the Supreme Court and Madras High Court while determining the genuinity of the caste certificate, and suo motu impleaded the Chief Secretary to comply with the court's order.
A division bench comprising Justice J Nisha Banu and Justice N Mala observed that "we make it clear that a very serious view will be taken if the direction is not complied with".
Petitioner M R Anand moved the MHC seeking to direct the State to declare his community certificate as genuine and to reinstate him in service with all benefits and back wages.
"The string of previous litigations referred to above would show how much the petitioner has been harassed for getting the community certificate", observed the bench after finding out the legal fight the petitioner carried out from 2002.
The bench wrote, that the petitioner was made to run from pillar to post and was forced to file a series of litigations to agitate his genuine claim for a community certificate.
"Fraudulent claims have to be dealt with stringently but, at the same time, genuine claims cannot be rejected on flimsy and untenable grounds", read the judgment.
"Constitutional fraud is committed when genuine persons of the said community are deprived of their right to the said benefits by illegal and whimsical orders", observed the bench.
The bench directed the State to issue a fresh community certificate to the petitioner and posted the matter to February 26 for compliance with court order.
According to the petitioner, he joined the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in the Arakkonam branch as an assistant under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) quota. However, in 2022, the LIC approached the district level scrutiny committee to verify the genuinity of the petitioner's community certificate.
The State and district-level scrutiny committee concluded that Anand did not belong to the ST community and canceled his community certificate. Anand filed various petitions before the court from 2002 to get his community certificate.
PR Dinesh Kumar, the counsel for the petitioner, submitted that when the community certificate of the petitioner's father and sister having valid ST certificates, which remained unchallenged till date, but that was not never considered by the State level committee.
