The district caste verification committees (DCVC) of the State government have the jurisdiction in law to verify the caste certificate issued even to a person employed by the Central government or proposed to be employed by the Central government, the High Court of Karnataka has said.
The circulars issued by the Central government stating that District Magistrates/Deputy Commissioners will have to verify the caste certificate of its employees/proposed employees cannot override the DCVC, established through a comprehensive system of verification of caste certificates under the Karnataka Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (Reservation Of Appointment, etc.) Rules, 1992, the court said.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order while dismissing a petition filed by Sangappa M. Bagewadi, a retired senior technician of South Western Railway, Hosapete. The petitioner had questioned the jurisdiction of the DCVC in connection with the proceedings initiated against him in 2016 on his caste certificate when he was in service.
No system in many places
The Central government issued circulars noticing that there was no particular system in many States and Union Territories to verify a caste certificate and the serious matter of bogus, false, and forged caste certificates could be tackled with the cooperation of the State, the court pointed out while stating the recommendation made in the circulars to verify the caste certificate through DCs is not a direction that would apply to a State where there is a system established to verity the document.
“Those circulars will only apply where there is no particular system which has been established which is not the case in the State of Karnataka due to the rules of 1992 being applicable,” the court observed while also holding that the rules of 1992 apply even to the Railways, which is an establishment of the Central government.
Also, the court said that even if a caste certificate has been issued by a tahsildar prior to the rules of 1992 coming into force, the DCVC can verify them in terms of the rules by following the due procedure.
What SC had said
Meanwhile, the court directed the Principal Secretary, Department of Personal and Administrative Reforms, indicating the compliance and implementation of the directions issued by the apex court way back in 1994 in Kumari Madhuri Patil’s case. The apex court, in this case, had issued 15-point guidelines to be followed by the State governments to streamline the procedure for the issuance of social status certificates, their scrutiny, and approval.
Published - February 18, 2025 08:02 pm IST
