High Court impleads for issue of ST certificates

A division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramanium Prasad, said “We are of the view that though a mechanism is provided in the order of the Supreme Court in Madhuri Patil’s case, it would be better if the reports/basis for recognising some tribal for the issuance of Presidential order are available for the purpose of conducting proper enquiry into the claim of ST candidates and to avoid any bogus certificates being issued.”

The petitioner had contended that there are no anthropological reports available with the Revenue Divisional Officers, at the time when a request is made by a genuine applicant seeking admission/employment and in the absence of the above, community certificates are denied.

He further submitted that to facilitate RDO from making a proper enquiry and issue ST certificate when there are no reports available, the necessity of an anthropologist at the first stage of enquiry into the genuineness of the application is required. He also drew the attention of the Court that 36 communities in the State have been recognised as belonging to scheduled tribes and included in a Presidential SC/ST Order, 1950 and 1956 respectively.

Also, the bench on observing that the Presidential SC/ST order 1950 and 1956 would not have been issued without any basis recognising the above said 36 communities as belonging to ST, directed the State to place all the reports submitted to the GoI, for issuance of the Presidential SC/ST order.