The Supreme Court on Thursday restored the caste certificate of Navneet Kaur Rana, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) from Amravati Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra.
The order was passed by the Bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Sanjay Karol on a petition filed by Rana challenging the Bombay High Court order that cancelled and confiscated her caste certificate, which validated her claim that she belonged to ‘Mochi’ Schedule Caste.
The Apex Court observed that in the instant case, the Scrutiny Committee duly considered the documents before it and passed its decision complying with the 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, it was allowing Rana’s instant appeals and setting aside the High Court order.
The development came just hours before Rana prepared to file her nomination papers as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Amaravati constituency, which is a reserved category constituency for the Scheduled Caste (SC) community members.
Navneet Kaur Ravi Rana was represented by Senior Advocate Dhruv Mehta represented.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal and Advocate Shadan Farasat appeared for the original petitioner before the High Court.
The State of Maharashtra was represented by Advocates Siddharth Dharmadhikari and Aaditya Aniruddha Pande.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the Caste Scrutiny Committee.
Earlier on February this year, the Apex Court had reserved its verdict on Lok Sabha MP Navneet Kaur Rana’s plea challenging the Bombay High Court verdict cancelling her caste certificate. The High Court in June, 2021 had said the Mochi caste certificate was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents. The High Court had also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on the Amravati MP.
It further said the records indicated that she belonged to the Sikh-Chamar caste. A bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Sanjay Karol reserved its judgement on the plea of the independent lawmaker who represents Maharashtra’s Amravati constituency that is reserved for scheduled castes.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had stayed the high court verdict cancelling Rana’s caste certificate.
Navneet Rana, backed by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), won from Amravati in 2019 while claiming she was a member of the Mochi caste.
A division bench of the Bombay High Court had asked NCP leader Rana to surrender the certificate within six weeks and asked her to pay the penalty of Rs 2 lakh to the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority.
The court had observed that Rana’s claim of belonging to the Mochi caste for obtaining the scheduled caste certificate itself was fraudulent and made with the intention of obtaining various benefits provided to a candidate from such a category despite knowing she does not belong to that caste.
The Bombay High Court in its judgment remarked that the application for caste certificate was made intentionally to make a fraudulent claim to enable Rana to contest the election for the post of Member of Parliament on a seat reserved for a scheduled castes candidate.
The court had passed the verdict on a plea seeking cancellation of the caste certificate dated August 30, 2013 issued by the Mumbai deputy collector, identifying Navneet Rana as a member of the Mochi caste.
Notably, Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul had lodged a complaint with the Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, which ruled in Rana’s favour and validated the certificate. He then approached the high court.