Bombay HC cancels Amravati MP Navneet Kaur Rana’s caste certificate, says she got it fraudulently
Navneet Rana was directed by the division bench of Justice RD Dhanuka and Justice VG Bisht to surrender the caste certificate within six weeks.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday cancelled the caste certificate issued to Amravati Lok Sabha member Navneet Kaur Rana, saying it was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents, and directed her to surrender it within six weeks.
A division bench of justices RD Dhanuka and VG Bisht also imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh, which she needs to pay to the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority within a period of two weeks.
The court noted that the claim of belonging to ”Mochi” caste made by Rana for obtaining the Scheduled Caste certificate itself was fraudulent and made with an intention to obtain various benefits available to a candidate from such category, despite knowing she does not belong to that caste.
Rana was elected from Maharashtra’s Amravati Lok Sabha seat in 2019. She is an Independent MP backed by the NCP.
“The application (for caste certificate) was made intentionally to make a fraudulent claim to enable the respondent no.3 (Rana) to contest the election for the post of Member of Parliament on a seat reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate,” the court said in its judgment.
“In our view, since respondent no.3 has obtained the caste certificate fraudulently and got it validated fraudulently from the Caste Scrutiny Committee by producing fabricated and fraudulent documents, such caste certificate is cancelled and stands confiscated,” the bench said.
It is needless to observe that all the consequences in law providing upon cancellation of such fraudulently obtained caste certificate and caste validity certificate shall follow, the court added.
The court in its judgment also noted the “abysmal” functioning of the scrutiny committee.
The court passed its order on a petition filed by social worker Anandrao Adsule, seeking for cancellation of the caste certificate dated 30 August, 2013 issued by Mumbai Deputy Collector, identifying Rana as belonging to the ”Mochi” caste.
Adsule later filed a complaint with the Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, which ruled in favour of Rana and validated her caste certificate.
Adsule then approached the high court.
The petitioner’s case was that Rana obtained the caste certificate using forged and fabricated documents.
It claimed the certificate was obtained under the influence of Navneet Rana’s husband Ravi Rana, who was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
The high court in its judgment said the order passed by the Scrutiny Committee validating Navneet Rana’s caste certificate was “totally perverse, without the application of mind and contrary to the evidence on record”.
The bench noted that the original birth certificate of Navneet Rana did not mention the caste ”Mochi”.
“In our view, there are two sets of documents produced by the respondent no.3 (Navneet Rana) which were contradictory to each other before the scrutiny committee. The respondent no.3 had claimed to be ”Sikh Chamar” as well as ”Ravidasiya Mochi”,” the HC said.
