The Madras High Court on Friday suggested that the State government order that henceforth only officers in the rank of Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) would be competent to issue community, income and nativity certificates, after proper inquiry, to prevent existing malpractices in issuance of such certificates to ineligible people.
Justices N. Kirubakaran and T.V. Thamilselvi included the Revenue Secretary, suo motu , as one of the respondents to a writ petition before them and sought the response of the State government by July 9 to the suggestion made by the court. The judges expressed dismay over numerous complaints of false claims having been made regarding caste status.
The writ petition before the Division Bench complained that an individual had got elected to the reserved Ayyarnapalli panchayat in Krishnagiri district on the strength of a community certificate that identified him to be a Scheduled Tribe (ST) though he does not belong to that community and could not claim the ST status.
Taking serious note of the issue brought to the notice of court by the petitioner’s counsel D. Veerasekaran, the judges said they had also been coming across complaints of false claims on caste status being made to secure seats in educational institutions and also to obtain government jobs, under reserved quota, thereby depriving the genuine candidates of an opportunity to get educated and gain public employment.
“The officials also, for various reasons, merrily issue such certificates and violate the constitutional right of the people genuinely belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,” the judges said and disapproved of the practice of underserving people getting enriched unjustly by making false claims regarding their caste status.
Similarly, when it came to admission in medical colleges in the State, it was not uncommon to find residents of other States producing nativity certificates to falsely claim they were natives of Tamil Nadu, the judges said and insisted upon streamlining the process of issuance of nativity certificates too.
Students residing in Tamil Nadu end up losing the opportunity of studying medicine in government colleges situated here just because of the false nativity certificates issued by the officials here to non residents, the judges said.
