HC junks Maharashtra independent MP’s caste certificate as ‘fraud’, fines her Rs 2 lakh

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday cancelled and confiscated the caste certificate of Navneet Rana, independent MP from Amravati, ruling that it was “fraudulently obtained”. It also imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh on her. It must be paid to the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority within 2 weeks.

Rana (36) was elected in the May 2019 LS elections from a reserved seat. A former model and actress, she won as an independent supported by the Congress-NCP and RPI against Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul.
The ruling came on a batch of three petitions, two by her opponents in 2018 and 2019, and one filed by Rana in 2020. Alleging “political kichdi’ for the row over her SC certificate, Rana said she will move the top court.
Setting aside MP Navneet Rana’s caste certificate and a 2017 order validating her certificate that she belonged to the “‘Mochi’ Scheduled Caste”, the HC on Tuesday directed her to surrender the caste certificate within six weeks. The court observed she had “committed a fraud on the Constitution”.
The HC bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and V G Bisht said, “In our view, the caste claim made by (her) for obtaining a caste certificate as Scheduled Caste itself was fraudulent and was made with the intention to obtain various benefits available to a candidate from such Scheduled Caste category knowing well that she does not belong to that caste… (and) made intentionally to make a fraudulent claim to enable (her) to contest an election for Member of Parliament on the seat reserved for an SC candidate.”
The HC, in its 108-page judgment, said the scrutiny committee’s order in accepting her claim on the basis of two “fabricated” documents—a rent agreement of 1932 of her great-grandfather and a 2014 college certificate—is “totally perverse.” “In our view, there were two sets of documents produced which were contradictory,” it said.
She had claimed to be ‘Sikh Chamar’ as well as ‘Ravidasiya Mochi’, said the HC, adding, “In our view, the term ‘Chamar’ and ‘Mochi’ are not synonymous and are different identity.”
“Abdicating its responsibility... the scrutiny committee chose to remain discreet,” the HC said, adding it was “aghast at the eerie silence” of the committee at certain questions. The HC said “all the consequences in law provided upon cancellation of... caste certificate... shall follow”. An election petition against Rana’s 2019 win is pending before HC’s Nagpur bench.