Kamal Kumar vs State of Uttarakhand and others

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.—Heard Mr. L. K. Verma, Advocate for the petitioner and Mr. Subhash Upadhyay, Brief Holder for the State of Uttarakhand.

The petitioner claims to be a member of "Other Backward Class" (from hereinafter referred to as ''O.B.C.''), which is known as "Barhaee". It is not disputed by the State Authorities that the caste "Barhaee" is notified as OBC in the State of Uttar Pradesh as well as in the State of Uttarakhand. According to the petitioner, he is residing at Haridwar since 1991. The petitioner now seeks a caste certificate of the caste of which he belongs and on which there is absolutely no dispute. All the same, it is being denied to the petitioner by the concerned authorities and his application has been rejected vide order dated 21.03.2011 on grounds that the petitioner is not a domicile /permanent resident of Haridwar, and therefore such a certificate cannot be granted.

This Court in Neha Saini Vs. State of Uttarakhand and another AIR 2010 Uttarakhand 36 as well as in Smt. Madhu Arya Vs. State of Uttarakhand reported in 2011 (1) U.D., 292 has held that there is nothing like a provincial domicile and each citizen of India has only one domicile which is "domicile of India". Therefore not granting the caste certificate to the petitioner on the above ground is wholly illegal. There is no doubt that the petitioner resides in Uttarakhand and this fact is not denied by the respondents that the petitioner got his appointment in the P.H.Q. of Uttarakhand Police, Dehradun in the year 2009 in the post of Constable (M) on the basis of the O.B.C. certificate. He is therefore liable to be treated as a permanent resident of Uttarakhand. Under these circumstances, the denial of a caste certificate to the petitioner is incorrect.

The impugned order dated 21.03.2011 is set aside. Direction is given to District Magistrate, Haridwar to give a caste certificate to the petitioner forthwith.

It is made clear that before any such exercise, the concerned authorities shall take an affidavit from the applicant as well as from his father that they are permanent residents of State of Uttarakhand and they have not applied for a caste certificate from any other State or has not taken any benefit of reservation from any other State, but from the State of Uttarakhand. It goes without saying that in case the averments of such an affidavit found to be false, the concerned authorities must take action in accordance with law against the petitioner or the person giving such an affidavit.

With above observation, the writ petition is disposed of.

No order as to costs.