SC stays Bombay HC verdict of cancelling caste certificate of Amravati MP

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Bombay High Court verdict of cancelling the caste certificate of Independent Lok Sabha MP from Amravati in Maharashtra.

A vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari issued notice to the government of Maharashtra and others over the special leave petition by Ms Kaur against the order.

The Bombay High Court has cancelled her caste certificate observing that it was obtained by producing fabricated documents.

Amravati is a reserved (SC) constituency, and Ms Kaur could have lost the membership of the lower house if her caste certificate stands cancelled.

The court in its judgement also noted the "abysmal" functioning of the scrutiny committee.

The bench further noted that the original birth certificate of Navneet Rana did not mention the caste.

Earlier, in this month Bombay High Court cancelled the caste certificate issued to Amravati Lok Sabha member Navneet Kaur Rana, saying it was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents.

A division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and V G 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 and directed her to surrender the certificate within six weeks.

The scrutiny committee did its job rather sloppily and shirked the obligations imposed on it, the HC observed.The HC noted that the core function of the scrutiny committee while verifying caste certificates is the investigation carried out by its vigilance cell

Navneet Rana was elected from Maharashtra's Amravati Lok Sabha seat in 2019. She is an Independent MP supported by the NCP.(UNI)