Hon’ble CAT Mumbai has
passed order in respect of OA no. 508/2010, dated 30.06.2014, on verification
of Caste certificate. The operative part
is as under:
“…….In
this connection the observation of the Hon'ble High Court of Bombay in
Chandrabhan Yamaji Nandanwar (supra) is very relevant.
It is therefore observed that in a case where
the Government has reserved its right to scrutinise the caste claim, it shall
do so within reasonable time and in absence of any time limit fixed. We feel
that reasonable limit should be two
years. This limit we are fixing on the basis that ordinarily as a matter of
rule while appointing a Government servant, the State Government puts them on
probation for a period of two years.
The
present case squarely falls in the ambit of verification within reasonable time
and the delayed action by the Government after a period of 13 years is not
justified going by the above judgement. Having continued the applicant for 13
long years, and making him age-barred for any further employment, the
Government cannot suddenly wake up and remove him from service on the ground
that he entered into employment with an incorrect S.T. claim. Respondents are
directed to initiate an inquiry against the officers responsible for
verification of documents in the case of the applicant and impose exemplary
punishment on such officials for gross negligence and dereliction of duty. Such
punishment should be a lesson for others to guard against negligence in future.
14.
We accordingly pass the following orders:
(i)The
Original Application is partly allowed to the extent that the order of
punishment dated 23.6.2009 and the Appellate Order dated 5.3.2010 are quashed
and set aside.
(ii)
The Respondents are directed to reinstate the Applicant in service with effect
from 23.6.2009 when he was removed from service.
(iii)The
intervening period from the date of removal and reinstatement will be treated
as duty for all purposes and he is entitled for all consequential notional
benefits except that no back-wages will be payable during the said period.
(iv)Having established that the applicant does
not belong to the category of Scheduled Tribe he will not be entitled to claim
reservation in any service matter such as promotion etc. in future.
(v)
The above direction shall be complied
with in a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this
order.
(vi)
Respondents are directed to initiate an
inquiry against the officers responsible for verification of documents in the
case of the applicant and impose exemplary punishment on such officials for
gross negligence and dereliction of duty. Such punishment should be a lesson
for others to guard against negligence in future.
(vii)Respondent
No.2 will file an Action Taken Report (ATR) before this Tribunal within one
year explaining the action taken against the erring officials.
(viii) There will be no
order as to costs.
A J Rohee, Dr. Mrityunjay Sarangi, Member (J) Member
(A)
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