The petitioner, who claims himself to be belonging to a Scheduled Tribe, namely, Tharu, being aggrieved by the order passed by the District Magistrate, Raebareli dated 8.9.2007, rejecting his claim for issuance of the caste certificate of Scheduled Tribe, has approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution.
On considering the pleas raised by the petitioner's counsel as well as the counsel for the State Sri H.P. Srivastava and going through the order passed by the District Magistrate, it leaves no ambiguity that the documents which are being relied upon by the petitioner in the writ petition for establishing that he belongs to Tharu Scheduled Tribe, have well been discussed by the District Magistrate in his order and for the reasons given therein, they have not been found to be valid or sufficient for upholding the claim of the petitioner that he belongs to Scheduled Tribe.
We also find from the order that a Committee consisting of government officers named therein, had undertaken the task of testing the validity of the claim of the petitioner regarding issuance of caste certificate of Tharu Scheduled Tribe and they have found that in Tehsil Lalganj, District Raebareli, no person belonging to Tharu caste was living. The documents with respect to the census of the year 1971 have also been considered by the District Magistrate, who has given reasons for not relying upon the subsequent census.
We need not enter into the validity of the order passed by the District Magistrate, in view of the fact that the learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner having been declared to be belonging to Scheduled Caste, a direction be issued for issuance of caste certificate of Scheduled Caste and he forgoes his claim for treating him to be a person belonging to Scheduled Tribe.
That being so, the petitioner is at liberty to move an appropriate application for issuance of caste certificate of Scheduled Caste and if such an application is made, we expect that the same shall be considered and decided expeditiously and necessary certificate shall be issued. The order passed by the District Magistrate would be seen by the concerned authority, who is to issue the caste certificate.
Considering the submissions made during the course of arguments and looking to the fact that this Court is flooded with the cases, where the caste certificates issued by the District Magistrate are in question, we find that there is no appropriate forum, where such a grievance can be raised by the persons who approach this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution.
Writ jurisdiction does not allow us to enter into the disputed questions of fact or to reassess or re-appreciate the findings recorded by the District Magistrate, unless, of course, it is established that the finding is perverse or absolutely arbitrary.
We also take notice of the fact that in the matters like the present one, suit for declaration would also not be maintainable, in view of the ratio of the judgement in the case of Kumari Madhuri Patil and another v. Additional Commissioner, Tribal Development and others, (1994) 6 SCC 241.
In the similar circumstances, this Court had earlier in some cases, required the Chief Standing Counsel, to take instructions as to why an appellate forum be not provided but for one reason or the other, the instructions could not be made available.
We, under the circumstances, provide that the State Government may consider this question and it does not appear to be very difficult to provide a forum for the purpose, may be the Commissioner of the Division itself.
Let this order be communicated to the Chief Secretary, Government of U.P., for taking appropriate action for providing appellate forum for the purpose of deciding the disputes regarding issuance of caste certificates, against the orders passed by the concerned issuing authority.
With the above observations, the petition is disposed of.