In a significant judgment, the Bombay high court on Friday ruled that vigilance research officers, who assist caste scrutiny committees, cannot be cross-examined. This judgment implies that persons seeking caste certificates will not be able to intimidate vigilance research officers by threatening to drag them to court.
A division bench comprising Justices R.F. Rebello and Mrudula Bhatkar observed that applicants have a chance to disprove the findings of the research officers by producing contrary evidence. The bench then declared that there should not be any provision for having a separate review of the same.
Hearing a petition filed by a civil servant, Bharat Gulabrao Thakur, the bench observed that since applicants already get an opportunity to substantiate their claim for the caste certificate, there is no further need to cross-examine the research officer.
Mr Thakur had pleaded that the applicants should be given a chance to cross-examine the vigilance research officer.
Mr Thakur had applied for a caste certificate himself, but a scrutiny committee had rejected his application in April 2007. Mr Thakur had then demanded through his advocate that he be allowed to cross-examine the vigilance research officer. However, when the scrutiny committee rejected this demand as well, Mr Thakur approached the high court.
The court observed that the responsibility of the vigilance division of the scrutiny committee is merely to aid the committee to arrive at a decision. Even if the research officer gives an adverse report, it is only an observation arrived at after investigation, and is in no way binding on the scrutiny committee’s decision.
If the committee accepts the decision, it gives a show-cause notice to the applicant, giving him a chance to prove his caste. Subsequently, in his reply, the applicant gets every chance to disprove the investigation report by producing additional papers, oral or documentary proof.
However, in case of Mr Thakur, the HC has asked the scrutiny committee to re-examine his case as the committee had rejected his application without providing adequate reasons. Mr Thakur will continue to be a civil servant till the committee gives its report.