High Court · 2025

1 986-WP-15118-19.odtIN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAYBENCH AT AURANGABADWRIT PETITION NO. 15118 OF 2019WITHCIVIL APPLICATION NO. 10256 OF 2025 IN WP/15118/2019SURESH RAGHUNATH SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State...WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 200 OF 2025SATYESHWARI YOGIRSAJ SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA THROUGH SECRETARY AND ANOTHER...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15114 OF 2019SHANKAR SAKRUBA SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State...WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15107 OF 2019SUBHASH PUNDLIK SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/StateMr. A. S. Usmanpurkar, Advocate for Respondent Nos. 3 And 4... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15117 OF 2019SVH 2 986-WP-15118-19.odtANJU RAGHUNATH SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/StateMr. Sambhaji S. Tope, Advocate for Respondent No. 3... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15108 OF 2019MADHAV UKHAJI SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15116 OF 2019VISHNU SHAMRAO SONUNE (DIED) THROUGH LRS.VERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15109 OF 2019SAVITA UKHAJI SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15111 OF 2019RAJU ALIAS RAJIV LAXMAN SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,SVH 3 986-WP-15118-19.odtAdvocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15112 OF 2019YOGESH LAXMAN SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15192 OF 2019DHANRAJ PANDURANG SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/StateMr. Sanjay Dattatrya Hiwrekar, Advocate for Respondent No. 3... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 3554 OF 2020SHUBHANGI SAMADHAN SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ANOTHER...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15115 OF 2019KASHINATH SHAMRAO SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15110 OF 2019SURESH UKHAJI SONUNESVH 4 986-WP-15118-19.odtVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State...WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15106 OF 2019SAMADHAN PUNDLIK SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State... WITH WRIT PETITION NO. 15113 OF 2019GAJANAN JAYAJI SONUNEVERSUSTHE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS...Mr. Deepak D. Choudhari, Advocate h/f Mr. Ramesh B. More,Advocate for the PetitionerMr. A. R. Kale, AGP for Respondent/State… CORAM : NITIN B. SURYAWANSHI AND VAISHALI PATIL JADHAV, JJ. DATE : 16th DECEMBER, 2025PER COURT : 1.By all these writ petitions petitioners challenge thecommon order dated 29/11/2019, passed by the respondentCommittee thereby invalidating their tribe claim as belonging to‘Koli Malhar’ scheduled tribe. Since the petitioners are bloodrelatives, their cases were considered and common order waspassed by the Committee.SVH 5 986-WP-15118-19.odt2.Learned advocate for petitioners has relied upon theorders dated 09/09/2024 and 23/08/2024 passed by this Court inWrit Petition Nos.10003/2023 and 8635/2024 respectively, therebyissuing conditional validity to Bibishan Shrirang Sonune, whosename appears at Sr. No.14 in the impugned order and VinayDnyaneshwar Sonune whose father’s name appears in thegenealogy submitted by the petitioners.3.Learned AGP has vehemently opposed the petitionscontending that the Committee has considered the fact that theword ‘Malhar’ has been added subsequently in the school record ofblood relatives of the petitioners and earlier their caste was onlydescribed as ‘Koli’. He further submits that fraud is committed bythe validity holder blood relatives of the petitioners while obtainingvalidity certificate. Therefore, the petitioners are not entitled to relyon the said certificates. He further submits that the earlier claims ofblood relatives of the petitioners are rejected by the Committee andsaid orders are confirmed by this Court in the case of SubhashShravan Sonune (Writ Petition No.3389/2005), Kiran Sitaram Sonune(Writ Petition No.8267/2005) and Ratan Govinda Sonune (WritPetition No.8269/2005), which is considered by the Committee whilerejecting the petitioners’ claims. He, therefore, submits that no caseis made out by the petitioners to allow their writ petitions.4.While passing the order in Bibishan Shrirang Sonune’sSVH 6 986-WP-15118-19.odtcase Coordinate Bench of this Court has considered the saidarguments advanced by the learned AGP and observed thus;“3.Having heard both the sides and havingperused the impugned order as also original files,irrespective of the stand of the present committeeregarding existence of few contrary entries and fewmanipulated entries wherein the petitioner’s bloodrelatives were described as Koli and in some of thoseentries word Malhar has been added subsequently,we need not conduct objective scrutiny of theinference in that respect drawn by the Committee, asthe Committee will have to undertake due process oflaw if at all it is of such a strong view about thevalidity holders having concealed / manipulated therecord while obtaining certificates of validities. Thevalidity holders are not before us and anyobservation made in that respect would have abearing on the matters to be reopened by theCommittee.4.The fact remains that, as mentioned by theCommittee there are several validities in the family.Vinay Dnyaneshwar Sonune who is admittedly relatedto the petitioner by blood was held entitled to havecertificate of validity by this Court in Writ PetitionNo.8635 of 2024 vide order dated 23 August 2024. Ifsuch is the state of affairs, the petitioner is entitled tohave a certificate of validity irrespective of theallegations regarding fraud attributable to the initialperson, who had suffered invalidation Mr. SubhashShravan Sonune, but was able to obtain a freshcertificate and got it validated.”5.Similar objection was raised by learned AGP in VinayDnyaneshwar Sonune’s case, which is also negatived by a reasonedorder passed by the Coordinate Bench. In any case the commonorder impugned herein was challenged by Bibishan Shrirang Sonuneand this Court has directed to issue conditional validity certificate toSVH 7 986-WP-15118-19.odthim. The view of the Coordinate Bench is binding on us and on theground of parity the petitioners are also entitled for the same relief.6.For the reasons stated in the orders dated 09/09/2024and 23/08/2024 passed by this Court in Writ PetitionNos.10003/2023 and 8635/2024 respectively, the writ petitions arepartly allowed. The impugned order dated 29/11/2019 passed bythe Committee is quashed and set aside. The Committee shall issuevalidity certificates to the petitioners of ‘Koli Malhar’ scheduled tribeimmediately in prescribed proforma. It shall be co-terminus with thevalidities in the family, which the Committee has decided toreopen. Petitioners shall not be entitled to claim equities.7.Accordingly, the pending civil application also standsdisposed of. (VAISHALI PATIL JADHAV, J.) (NITIN B. SURYAWANSHI, J.)