HC strikes down Navneet Kaur-Rana’s caste certificate

The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday set aside the November 2017 decision of the Mumbai suburban district caste scrutiny committee, validating caste claim of Navneet Kaur-Rana, an independent Member of Parliament from Amravati, that she belonged to Mochi community, a Scheduled Caste

The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday set aside the November 2017 decision of the Mumbai suburban district caste scrutiny committee, validating caste claim of Navneet Kaur-Rana, an independent Member of Parliament from Amravati, that she belonged to Mochi community, a Scheduled Caste.

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The HC also cancelled the certificate issued by then deputy collector of Mumbai in August 2013 to Kaur-Rana and directed her to pay litigation cost of ₹2 lakh to Maharashtra Legal Services Authority within two weeks.

The HC also declared that all consequences of cancellation of the validity and confiscation of the caste certificate will follow, meaning Kaur-Rana, who got elected in 2019 general elections as an independent MP, may lose the seat as it was reserved for a scheduled caste candidate.

A division bench of justice R D Dhanuka and justice V G Bisht pronounced the judgment on Tuesday on a petition filed by Shiv Sena leader and former MP from Amravati, Anandrao Adsul. The court also considered the allegations that the committee had failed to verify the authenticity of the documents submitted by Kaur-Rana to prove that she belonged to a Scheduled Caste.

Senior advocate CM Korde appearing for Adsul had submitted that Kaur-Rana had started taking steps to create forged and fabricated documents in 2013 with the help of her father as she intended to contest the parliamentary election in 2014 from Amravati.

Senior counsel Prasad Dhakephalkar for Kaur-Rana had opposed the allegations and the petition.

While pulling up the committee, the bench said, “We are of the firm view that Scrutiny Committee did its job rather sloppily and shirked the obligations imposed on it by the provisions of the Act…”