In Civil Appeal No. 6106 of 2017 -SC- Supreme Court confirms jurisdiction of committee to cancel caste certificates under West Bengal Act
Justice Vikram Nath & Justice Rajesh Bindal [08-12-2023]

Read Order: M/s Darvell Investment and Leasing (India) Pvt. Ltd. And Others V. The State of West Bengal and Others

Chahat Varma

New Delhi, December 11, 2023: The Supreme Court has affirmed the jurisdiction of a committee constituted under the West Bengal Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Identification) Act, 1994, to cancel caste certificates.

The case under consideration revolved around the challenge to the judgment of the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court, in which the order passed by the Single Judge was upheld. The issue at hand pertained to the cancellation of a caste certificate issued to respondent No. 15.

The set of facts included the sale of land by late Ramanand Baraik, who was initially recorded as belonging to the general category as per his employer's records. However, his son, respondent No. 15, obtained a Scheduled Tribe (S.T.) caste certificate in 1993, subsequently purchasing land and later asserting his belonging to the general category without seeking appropriate permission.

Several legal proceedings followed, including complaints, affidavits, cancellation of the caste certificate, appeals, and writ petitions. These ultimately led to contradictory decisions by different authorities, with the Committee initially revoking the cancellation of the caste certificate in favour of respondent No. 15, and subsequently, the High Court upholding the Committee's jurisdiction to inquire into complaints regarding the cancellation of an illegal caste certificate.

The division bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Rajesh Bindal noted that, regarding the argument on the jurisdiction of the Committee, a detailed examination was deemed unnecessary at this stage. The High Court had expressed the opinion that the Committee had jurisdiction to entertain the issue of cancelling the Caste Certificate under Section 8A of the West Bengal Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Identification) Act, 1994. Despite not explicitly mentioned in the Section, an amendment to the 1994 Act from 15.09.2017 included cases of cancellation of caste certificates under clause (c) of Section 8A. The only point of consideration was whether this amendment should be regarded as retrospective or retroactive.

Despite the procedural nature of the law and the matter being pending before the Committee for a decision on its merits, given the Committee's opinion on jurisdiction, the bench suggested that it could be examined at this stage. However, the bench decided not to follow this route, considering the conduct of the private respondents.

The bench observed that there was no evidence on record to indicate that the late Ramanand Baraik, father of respondent No. 15, had ever been issued a certificate confirming his belonging to the Scheduled Tribe community. The sale deeds in question were registered on 30.08.1983. The bench noted that respondent No. 15, based on a certificate issued subsequently in his favour, attempted to challenge one of the sale deeds executed by his late father during his lifetime. It was highlighted that at the time of Ramanand Baraik's death in 1991, respondent No. 15 was already over 18 years of age. Interestingly, the challenge to the sale deeds, isolated incidents, only arose in 2004, despite the certificate of Scheduled Tribe community being issued in favour of respondent No. 15 in 1993.

Thus, considering these facts, the Court concluded that the present appeal deserved to be allowed, and the judgment passed by the High Court was set aside. The Court found no merit in the claim of respondent No. 15, deeming it futile to remit the matter back to any authority for examination.