The Supreme Court has adjourned its hearing in the plea of actor-politician Amravati MP Navneet Kaur Rana against the Bombay High Court order which had cancelled her Scheduled Caste certificate.
The Apex Court in June last year had stayed the order of the High Court which directed her to surrender the caste certificate alleging the same was obtained fraudulently. The High Court had directed that all consequences in law would follow which may occur on cancellation and confiscation of the fraudulently obtained caste certificate. Also, it had imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh on her to be paid to Maharashtra Legal Services Authority within two weeks.
Today, a two-judge bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose has listed the matter for further hearing on February 23. The bench had to mediate between Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for the petitioner and respondent respectively as a squabble had ensued between the two. Justice Saran remarked “Yesterday you were not fighting when you appeared for the same side.”
Justice Bose speaking candidly to the Senior Advocates stated:
“The caste involved is that of a leather worker, in many states by different name it is identified, almost in all states, this category of workers fall in the SC category. So possibly in Punjab they became disciples of Ravidas, they got to be known by that name, so little bit of background may be given.”
On June 22, 2021, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Rana, had submitted that the terms “Mochi” and “chamaar” are synonymous, and the scrutiny committee had decided her caste status based on original records produced before it. Further, he argued that the High Court decision was erroneous as it entered into factual determination in a writ petition, ignoring several documents.
Rana, a former Telugu actor, contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from Amravati, a reserved constituency by submitting a caste certificate issued by the Mumbai Suburban District Caste Scrutiny Committee. Shiv Sena leader and former Amravati MP Anandrao Vithoba Asdul and two other petitioners had approached the Bombay High Court claiming that Rana had obtained the caste certificate fraudulently.