The Bombay High Court cancelled the caste certificate of independent MP Navneet Kaur and held that she got it validated fraudulently from the caste scrutiny committee. The court also observed that she had continued to avail all benefits.
The HC held that the Amravati MP had intentionally made a false claim for the scheduled caste certificate. She was imposed with a fine of ₹ 2 lakh to be submitted to the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority within two weeks.
Navneet Kaur Harbhajansingh Kundles, who is a resident of Mumbai's Marathwada Chawl in Narayan Nagar, had won the Amravati seat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections benefitting from the fraudulent caste category.
Former MP and Shiv Sena leader Anandra Adsul and other candidates who had also contested in elections in the same year had approached the High Court regarding this case.
The division bench of Justice R D Dhanuka and Justice V G Bisht said that "In our view since Navneet Kaur has obtained the caste certificate fraudulently and got the said caste certificate validated fraudulently from Caste Scrutiny Committee by producing fabricated and fraudulent documents, such caste certificate is cancelled and stands confiscated."
The court cancelled the caste certificate validation order passed on Nov 3, 2017, by the Mumbai Suburban District Caste Scrutiny Committee that had declared that Navneet Kaur was from the 'Mochi' Schedule Caste, reported India Today.
The High Court added that all consequences in law, which may occur on cancellation and confiscation of the fraudulently obtained caste certificate by Navneet Kaur would follow. The High Court in its 108-page judgement also castigated the functioning of the caste scrutiny committee.
"We in all seriousness, hope that hereinafter, the Scrutiny Committee shall take all caution and guarded approach before validating the Caste Certificate," mentioned the High Court.
However, Kaur-Rana said she will challenge the verdict in the apex court.
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