Research › Search › Judgment

Bombay High Court · body

2026 DAILYLAW 21347 (BOM)

BHARATI BHALCHANDRA SHIRKAR v. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ORS.

WP/1072/2010 · 2026-01-14

Shri M S Karnik, Shri S M Modak

body2026

Judgment text

Extracted from the PDF above. The PDF is authoritative.

1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.1072 OF 2010 ... Bharati Bhalchandra Shirkar @ Shobha Mohanrao Suryawanshi ...Petitioner v/s. The State of Maharashtra and ors. ...Respondents ... Mr.R.K.Mendadkar for the Petitioner. Mr.S.N.Patil, AGP for State. ... CORAM: D.K.DESHMUKH, & A.R.JOSHI, JJ DATED: 24th February,2010 P.C.: 1. Heard the learned Counsel for the Petitioner. The Petitioner by this petition challenges the order of the scrutiny 2 committee holding that the claim of the Petitioner that she belongs to Thakur Scheduled Tribe is not valid. Perusal of the order of the Scrutiny Committee shows that the Scrutiny Committee which is a body consisting of experts constituted pursuant to the directions issued by the Supreme Court in its judgment in the case of Madhuri Patil v/s. Addl.Commissioner, Tribe Dept., 1994(6) SCC 241, has applied the affinity test and has held that the Petitioner cannot claim to belong to Thakur Scheduled Tribe. The learned Counsel appearing for the Petitioner submitted that the validity certificates which have been issued by the Scrutiny Committee in favour of relatives of the Petitioner have been wrongly discarded. He also submitted that the Scrutiny Committee has not given reasons for its finding. 3 2. We have gone through the order. In our opinion, the criticism of the order that there is no reason disclosed in the order is not correct. Reasons have been assigned by the Scrutiny Committee. The Scrutiny Committee is a body consisting of experts, who have knowledge of the subject. In the absence of any allegation of malice being made against the members of the Scrutiny Committee, in our opinion, High Court will not be justified in interfering with the order of the Scrutiny Committee in its extremely limited jurisdiction. Petition is, therefore, rejected. (D.K.DESHMUKH, J.) (A.R.JOSHI, J.)