The West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 – Caste certificate issued in favour of respondent No.15, inter-related with the sale transactions of the land – Cancellation of Caste certificate:
Held: Sale deeds in question were executed by late father of respondent No. 15 – There is nothing produced on record to show that late father of respondent No. 15 was ever issued any certificate showing him belonging to Scheduled Tribe community – The sale deeds in question were registered on 30.08.1983 – It shows that on the basis of a certificate, which was issued subsequently in favour of respondent No. 15, he sought to challenge one of the various sale deeds executed by his late father during his life time claiming that they belonged to Scheduled Tribe community and the sale transaction was in violation of ss.14B,14C of the 1955 Act – Respondent No. 15’s father was engaged as a driver by the Corporation on 01.01.1973 – His services were terminated w.e.f. 30.11.1987 – As per the record with his employer, he belonged to general category – Late father of respondent No.15, never claimed himself to be a person belonging to Scheduled Tribe community – During his life time, he had sold about ten acres of land between 1980 and 1983 including the sale deed in question – None of those sale transactions have been challenged by him during his life time or by respondents No. 15 and 16, after his death claiming that the father belonged to Scheduled Tribe community – In fact, there was no certificate issued to that extent in his favour – It was the father who had executed the sale deeds – It also came on record that respondent No.
15 had executed the sale deeds I-1039 dated 01.03.2000 and I-575 dated 07.02.2001 - Those were also executed without seeking any permission from any authority – There is no challenge to that – Earlier to that, a complaint was filed for cancellation of the sale deed in question which was closed by the District Magistrate, vide order dated 29.08.2000 holding that respondent No. 15 did not belong to Scheduled Tribe community, as was even the status mentioned in two affidavits dated 06.07.2000 and 02.08.2000 sworn by him before Notary Public and Executive Magistrate, respectively – Even at the time of death of father of respondent No. 15, in the year 1991, respondent No. 15 was more than 18 years of age – The sale deeds in question in isolation were sought to be challenged only in the year 2004, even though the certificate of Scheduled Tribe community was issued in favour of respondent No. 15 in the year 1993 – No merit in the claim of respondent No. 15 – Impugned judgment passed by the High Court set aside – West Bengal Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Identification) Act, 1994 – s.8A. [Paras 29, 39-41] OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED
ORDER AND APPEARANCES
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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