LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, April 27: The Jharkhand High Court today refused to quash the order of the Caste Scrutiny Committee by which the caste certificate of BJP legislator Samri Lal, who was declared elected from SC reserved constituency in 2019, was declared wrong.
The development took place on the bench of Justice Rajesh Shanker where a petition of Lal was listed for hearing.
The court while refusing to quash the order observed that the membership of the petitioner in the assembly is at stake due to which he can file a petition for a stay but the order cannot be quashed.
The court after refusing to quash the order deferred the hearing in the matter till May 8. The Caste Scrutiny Committee had taken the following information of Congress party leader Suresh Baitha and thus the court before deferring the hearing in the matter directed to add the name of Baitha to the list of respondents.
Earlier, appearing on behalf of Lal, advocate Kumar Harsh submitted that the caste certificate of his client was declared wrong without any concrete basis. He submitted that in 1956 when Bihar and Jharkhand were one state, the caste of his client was included in the list of ST but on April 1, the State Scrutiny Committee without any witnesses and solid evidence has rejected his caste certificate.
He also submitted that the scrutiny committee cannot examine the caste certificate of a person whose caste certificate was issued based on the inquiry report.
