The Bombay high court has held that a girl, who lost two jobs because she had no caste validity certificate, is entitled to get compensation from the Caste Scrutiny Committee.Pulling up the committee, the court imposed a petition cost of Rs25,000 on the committee members.
The petitioner Vaishali Suryavanshi, of the Tokare Koli community, a Scheduled Tribe, had applied to the Committee for Scrutiny and Verification of Tribe Claims, at Nandurbar for a caste verification certificate. In 2008, she moved the Bombay HC, as the committee had delayed her case.
The court, in April last year, asked the committee to dispose of her application in two months. But the committee still failed to act. In the meantime, Suryavanshi received two job offers —the Co-operative Societies Registrar’s office, andGeneral Administration Department in Mantralaya, both in the reserved category. But she could not get either of the jobs, as she had no caste certificate.
“The failure of the petitioner to produce such validity certificate was not the result of any act attributable to the petitioner but because the authorities concerned failed to act expeditiously. It is expected of the committee to act in time and not push people to approach the court,” said the judges.
A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice AM Khanwilkar held that a “sense of public accountability is lacking in the members of the committee” and asked the committee to verify her caste certificate in four weeks.
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