1 950-wp-9630-2021.odt IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD 950 WRIT PETITION NO. 9630 OF 2021 Chandrakala Baburao Mekale VERSUS The State Of Maharashtra And Others ... Mr. Madhur A. Golegaonkar a/w. Mr. Sagar D. Modak and Mr. Manish L. Paithane, Advocate for the Petitioner Mr. Madhukar A. Aher, AGP for Respondent Nos. 1 to 3. ... CORAM : SANDIPKUMAR C. MORE AND ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, JJ. DATED : JANUARY 08, 2026 P.C.: 1. Heard. 2. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of parties Writ Petition is taken up for final hearing at the stage of admission. 3. By this Writ Petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner is challenging the impugned order dated 30.07.2021 passed by Respondent No.2-Scrutiny Committee by which the Tribe Claim of the petitioner of belonging to ‘Koli Mahadev’, Scheduled Tribe has been turned down. 4. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the original validity holder is one Devanand s/o Baburao Mekale and in the Narwade/ 2026:BHC-AUG:1179-DB 2 950-wp-9630-2021.odt Vigilance Cell Report submitted during his tribe verification proceeding name of the petitioner is appearing in the genealogy. He would further submit that the daughters of the said Devanand, namely Rushada Devanand Mekale and Rutuja Devanand Mekale have already been granted conditional validity by this Court in Writ Petition No.10650 of 2023 vide order dated 28.8.2023 and in Writ Petition No.9046 of 2020 vide order dated 14.01.2021. Learned Counsel for the petitioner would further urge that even relying on these two validities this Court in the case of their real brother namely Rudraksha Devanand Mekale Vs. State of Maharashtra in Writ Petition No. 11752 of 2025 vide order dated 25.09.2025 has granted conditional validity. The learned Counsel for the petitioner therefore urged that the petitioner deserves to be granted conditional validity. 5. Per contra the learned AGP would submit that certain inter polations as well as contra entries found by Respondent No.2-Scrutiny Committee shows that, petitioner does not even deserve conditional validity since the validity of Devanand Mekale which is relied upon by the petitioner has been granted by the Committee headed by V. S. Patil and therefore the same cannot be relied upon. He would further urge that this Court in Writ Petition No.653 of 2023 in the case of Prasad Laxmanrap paratwad Vs. The State of Maharashtra by an order dated Narwade/ 3 950-wp-9630-2021.odt 28.06.2023 has set aside the orders passed by the said Committee headed by Mr. V. S. Patil holding that all those orders are erroneous being unreasoned and cryptic. 6. Learned AGP has also relied upon the judgment and order passed by this Court in the case of Deepak S/o Balaji Rodewad Vs. State of Maharashtra and Ors. dated 01.11.2023 in Writ Petition No.9274 of 2021 along connected Writ Petition to contend that this Court has dismissed the writ Petition though the petitioners therein were relying upon the validity certificates of their blood relatives. This Court in the said case held that if certain serious contra entries and interpolation are noticed, then merely because other blood relatives are granted conditional validity by the Scrutiny Committee that cannot be a ground for issuance of conditional validity in favour of the petitioners. Learned AGP therefore reiterate that in the instant case also certain contra entries and interpolations are noticed by Respondent No.2-Scrutiny Committee, merely because the petitioner’s other blood relatives have been granted conditional validity by this Court the same by itself cannot be a ground for granting conditional validity to the petitioner and therefore urged that the Writ Petition deserves to be dismissed. However learned AGP has not disputed the relationship of petitioner with those validity holders. Narwade/ 4 950-wp-9630-2021.odt 7. After having heard the learned Counsel for the petitioner and the learned AGP, we find that the contention raised by the learned AGP regarding interpolation and contra entries in respect of school records as well as grant of tribe validity certificate in favour of Devanand Mekale by the Committee headed by Mr. V. S. Patil is concerned, this Court in the case of Rutuja Devanand Mekale (supra) in paragraph 3 observed thus :- “3. Mr. Patil, the learned Additional Government Pleader submits that there are numerous documents showing the entry Koli. Even entry in the school record of the petitioner’s father Devanand and petitioner’s paternal aunt records caste as Koli; word Mahadev has been subsequently added. The difference in the ink is clearly visible. The learned A.G.P. further submits that the petitioner relied on the school entry of his grandfather Baburao. When the vigilance visits the school they could not find the register and some other person’s name appeared at that serial number. The learned A.G.P. submits that the statement of one Narsing Laxman has been recorded, he has given the genealogy. The same is separate from the one given by the petitioner. This shows that the petitioner is misleading.” 8. Thus whatever is being argued by learned AGP in this case has already been considered by this Court while granting conditional validity to Rutuja. We also find that relying on the said order passed by this Court in the case of Rutuja Devanand Mekale (supra) as well as the self-same material, this Court has granted validity in favour of Rushada and Rudraksha. Moreover, relying on all these three validities their brother namely Rudraksh has also been granted validity by the Court. In that view of the matter we are of the view that the petitioner also deserves to be granted conditional validity. Narwade/ 5 950-wp-9630-2021.odt 9. We, therefore, pass the following order :- :: O R D E R :: i. The Writ Petition is allowed. ii. The impugned order dated 30.07.2021 passed by Respondent No.2-Scrutiny Committee, invalidating the caste claim of the petitioner belonging to 'Koli Mahadev', Scheduled Tribe, is quashed and set aside. iii. Respondent No.2-Scrutiny Committee shall immediately issue a tribe validity certificate to the petitioner as belonging to 'Koli Mahadev', Scheduled Tribe in the prescribed proforma. iv. The validity certificate of the petitioner shall be subject to the outcome of verification to be undertaken by Respondent No.2-Scrutiny Committee of the validity holders on whom the petitioner is relying. v. With the above directions, the petition stands disposed of. [ABASAHEB D. SHINDE, J.] [SANDIPKUMAR C. MORE, J.] Narwade/