(1) 106.wp.6561.2026 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH : NAGPUR WRIT PETITION NO.6561 OF 2026 Aditya Chandrashekhar Barokar Vs. The Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Through its Member-Secretary, Nagpur and others -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, Court's or Judge's orders appearances, Court's orders of directions and Registrar's orders -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Ashwin Deshpande, Advocate for petitioner. Mrs. S. S. Jachak, AGP for respondent No.1/State. Mr. Arnav Naik, Advocate h/f Mr. Nikhil Gaikwad, Advocate for respondent No.3. CORAM : URMILA JOSHI-PHALKE AND RAJ D. WAKODE, JJ. DATED : 25/08/2026 1. By this petition, the petitioner has made a very limited prayer to the extent of direction to the respondent No.1 - The Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nagpur to decide the claim of the present petitioner expeditiously. 2. As per the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner belongs to the ‘Mana’ Scheduled Tribe and is a student. It is the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the caste claim of the petitioner is pending before the respondent No.1 Committee and the petitioner has to participate in the admission process as he is already allotted with the seats, however, due to the unavailability of the Caste Validity Certificate, he is unable to participate in the admission process and, therefore, Committee 2026:BHC-NAG:11138-DB (2) 106.wp.6561.2026 be directed to decide the caste claim at the earliest. He is also seeking directions to the respondent No.3 State Commission Entrance Test Cell, State CET Cell, to consider the admission of the present petitioner without insisting for the Validity Certificate. He also invited our attention towards the earlier order passed by this Court and submitted that despite the orders are passed by this Court, the Committee has not decided the caste claim. 3. Learned AGP, on instructions, submitted that the caste claim of the petitioner can be disposed of within four weeks, as it is pending for the final order. 4. Learned counsel Mr. Naik holding for Mr. Nikhil Gaikwad, on instructions, submitted that as the petitioner is under obligation to produce the Validity Certificate, if he is unable to produce it, his request for admission may be partly considered. 5. After hearing both sides and taking into consideration the fact that now the State of Maharashtra had issued a Government Resolution granting period of six months to candidates belonging to Reserved Categories, viz. SBC and OBC, for submitting Caste Certificates and Caste Validity Certificates within a period of six months from the date of admission. We do not find any reason as to why such benefit of six months’ period should not be granted to other categories viz. “Scheduled Tribes; Scheduled Castes, Vimukta Jatis, and Nomadic Tribes. (3) 106.wp.6561.2026 6. In view of the above, we are of the considered opinion that the Application Form of the petitioner for admission to the First year of Engineering should be processed by respondent No.3 – State Commission Entrance Test Cell, State CET Cell, Mumbai and provisional admission should be granted to him. 7. In view of the above, we dispose of the present writ petition with directions to respondents, as follows: ORDER (1) Respondent No.1 – Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, Nagpur, shall decide the caste claim of the petitioner within four weeks. (2) Respondent No.3 – State Commission Entrance Test Cell, State CET Cell, Mumbai shall consider the admission of the petitioner for the First Year of the Engineer as per process and grant provisional admission, if he otherwise eligible, without insisting for Caste Validity Certificate. (3) Needless to mention that this admission would be subject to the final outcome of the petition. With this the petition is disposed of. (RAJ D. WAKODE, J) (URMILA JOSHI-PHALKE, J) Sarkate