1.WP.6462.2026.corrected 1/3 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR WRIT PETITION NO. 6462 OF 2026 Smit S/o. Uttam Dhanorkar Vs. The Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati & Anr. ______________________________________________________________________________ Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, Appearances, Court's orders of directions Court's or Judge's order and Registrar's orders. Mr. O.A. Ghare, Advocate for the Petitioner. Mr. S.V. Narale, AGP for Respondent No.1/State. Mr. Arnav Naik, Advocate h/f. Mr. Nikhil Gaikwad, Advocate for Respondent No.2. ------------------------------- CORAM : URMILA JOSHI-PHALKE AND R AJ D. WAKODE , JJ. DATE : 20.08.2026 By this petition, the petitioner is seeking a very limited relief to the extent of a direction to respondent No.1 - the Scheduled Tribe Scrutiny Committee, Amravati to decide the tribe claim of the petitioner for the social status of Scheduled Tribe ‘Halbi’ in a time-bound manner. He is also seeking an interim direction to respondent No.2 - the Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell to consider his candidature and permit him to continue in the process of NEET-UG-2026. 2. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, who submitted that the petitioner belongs to the ‘Halbi’ Scheduled Tribe. His caste claim was forwarded for verification on 25.07.2025. His father and sister are already granted validity certificates by the Committee. The present petitioner is pursuing his education and has already appeared for the NEET-UG-2026 process. He was selected for the MBBS course, but now the provisional Corrected as per Court’s Order dated 21.08.2026 2026:BHC-NAG:11084-DB 1.WP.6462.2026.corrected 2/3 merit list is already published by respondent No.2, wherein it is mentioned that the CVC filed or uploaded by the petitioner is invalid and, therefore, he would be considered in the open category. 3. He submitted that, despite the claim being pending since 25.07.2025, the petitioner has pursued the claim on various occasions, but the Committee has not decided the same. There are already validity certificates in the family. He also invited our attention to the decision of this Court in Writ Petition No.5566 of 2021 and Writ Petition No.4869 of 2019, wherein the father and real sister of the present petitioner were granted validity certificates in view of the orders passed by this Court. He submitted that, considering all the aforesaid facts, a direction be issued to respondent No.1 - Committee to decide the caste claim of the petitioner at the earliest and the candidature of the present petitioner be considered and he be allowed to take part in the further process of admission. 4. Learned AGP, on instructions, submitted that the caste claim of the petitioner can be decided within three months. 5. Learned counsel Mr. Naik, holding for Mr. Gaikwad, submitted that, as the petitioner has submitted the caste validity certificate of his father, the entry as to the invalid CVC is mentioned. Thus, he submitted that the petitioner has not submitted a valid certificate and, therefore, he is not entitled for any relief. 1.WP.6462.2026.corrected 3/3 6. Considering the fact that there are already validity certificates in the family, which were granted after scrutinizing the documents filed before this Court, and in view of the orders passed by this Court, and further considering that the claim of the present petitioner is pending before the Committee since 25.07.2025, the petitioner can rely upon such validity certificates before the Committee. Now, a statement has already been made that the caste claim of the petitioner can be decided within three months. 7. In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, the petitioner has made out a prima facie case for interim relief. Therefore, we allow this petition by directing respondent No.1 – the Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Amravati to decide the caste claim of the petitioner within three months. In the meantime, respondent No.2 shall consider the candidature of the petitioner from the category of Scheduled Tribe ‘Halbi’ and permit the petitioner to continue in the process in view of prayer clause (c). 8. With this, the petition is disposed of. No costs. 9. Authenticated copy of this order be supplied to the parties. (RAJ D. WAKODE, J.) (URMILA JOSHI-PHALKE, J.) Vijaykumar Signed by: Mr. Vijay Kumar Designation: PA To Honourable Judge Date: 25/08/2026 18:07:41