SC sets aside High Court verdict cancelling Amravati MP Navneet Kaur Rana’s scheduled caste certificate

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, April 4

The Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a Bombay High Court verdict cancelling the scheduled caste certificate of Amravati independent MP and current BJP candidate from the constituency Navneet Kaur Rana.

Allowing Rana’s appeal against the high court’s verdict, a Bench led by Justice JK Maheshwari said the high court should not have interfered with the report of the Scrutiny Committee on her caste certificate, which had concluded that she belonged to the scheduled caste community.

The Bench – which also included Justice Sanjay Karol — restored the validation order passed by the Scrutiny Committee.

“In the instant case, the Scrutiny Committee duly considered the documents before it and passed its decision complying with principles of natural justice. It did not merit any interference under Article 226. In light of the discussion and the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the instant appeal stands allowed and the high court order is set aside,” Justice Maheshwari said, pronouncing the judgment for the Bench.

Rana had won the reserved Amravati parliamentary seat in Maharashtra as an independent candidate backed by the NCP in 2019, defeating Shiv Sena candidate Anandrao Adsul.

She recently joined the BJP, which has fielded her from the same constituency.

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court had on June 8, 2021, said the ‘mochi’ caste certificate was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents by Rana. The high court had also slapped a fine of Rs 2 lakh on her, saying the records indicated that she belonged to the ‘Sikh-Chamar’ caste.

However, the Supreme Court had on June 22, 2021 stayed the order of the high court that quashed her Scheduled Caste certificate.

Rana had submitted before the top court that the high court was wrong in quashing her SC certificate by reversing the decision of the scrutiny committee that had found to be genuine her claim to be an SC candidate.