Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Tuesday imposed an interim stay on a May 14 order by the Bengal govt seeking reverification of 1.69 crore caste certificates issued to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) during the Trinamool regime since 2011.The HC order, however, does not stop the state from probing specific complaints under The West Bengal Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Identification) Act, 1994.Within five days of coming to office, the Suvendu Adhikari administration had passed an order calling for reverification of all caste certificates issued by the Trinamool govt over 15 years, most of these from ‘Duare Sarkar’ camps. The govt order also stated that caste certificates issued to individuals (and their dependents) whose names were deleted during SIR of Bengal’s electoral roll should be examined and “maybe” cancelled. It further warned that any laxity would result in “personal liability” for the issuing authority, usually district magistrates, additional DMs and sub-divisional officers (SDOs).The new govt’s order was challenged in high court through two separate writ petitions on the basis of the “doctrine of dictation” that argues that if a statutory authority (or officer) issues an order simply because it was instructed to do so, the order becomes legally invalid due to non-application of mind.Acting Chief Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Atarup Banerjee clarified that because the re-examination of specific complaints under the 1994 Act was not being legally challenged, only the “offending portions” of the order were being stayed.Contesting the legal challenge, advocate general Surajit Nath Mitra argued that as per statutes, caste certificates can be granted only to Indian citizens and the law lays down which documents can be considered, which include the voter ID. If a voter ID, which formed the basis for issuing a caste certificate, stands cancelled, then the certificate itself should be re-examined. “It is not absolute that people struck off from the voter roll will automatically lose their caste certificates. There are multiple complaints that non-beneficiaries have been issued caste certificates. This needs to be re-examined. A re-examination does not necessarily mean cancellation,” he said.Senior advocate Bikash Bhattacharya said, “I am not saying at any point that there should not be a reverification based on specific complaints. But there cannot be an omnibus and general order stating that all caste certificates issued in the last 15 years must be re-examined. This will create large-scale disruption and anxiety. Let the govt examine any specific complaint, even for certificates issued since 2005. There is a law for it. But here, the notification cites a few complaints and then issues directives to SDOs for total re-examination, which is plain dictation. This is bad in law.”
