The Supreme Court has held that the affinity test is not a litmus test to decide a caste claim as neither it is an essential part of the process in every case, nor it is the sole deciding factor.
A three-judge bench of Justice S.K. Kaul, Justice A.S. Oka, and Justice Manoj Misra while noting that the affinity test cannot be conclusive either way observed that it is not integral to the determination of caste status made by the Caste Scrutiny Committee.
"When an affinity test is conducted by the Vigilance Cell, the result of the test along with all other material on record having probative value will have to be taken into consideration by the Scrutiny Committee for deciding the caste validity claim," it asserted.
The larger bench was deciding the issue referred by the Division bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice V. Ramasubramanian as it noted that the two decisions of the Apex Court in the matter stand on different footings. The Court affirmed the decision in Anand Vs. Committee for Scrutiny & Verification of Tribe Claims & Ors. and discarded the findings of Vijakumar v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.
Brief Facts of the Case
The appeal arose against a decision of a Full Bench of the Bombay High Court in the case of Shilpa Vishnu Thakur v. State of Maharashtra wherein while interpreting the provisions of the 2000 Act as well as ST Rules laid down various procedural aspects to be followed by the Scrutiny Committee and held that the affinity test is an integral part of the determination of the correctness of the caste claim and held that the affinity test is an integral part of the determination of the correctness of the caste claim.
The appeal arose against a decision of a Full Bench of the Bombay High Court in the case of Shilpa Vishnu Thakur v. State of Maharashtra wherein while interpreting the provisions of the 2000 Act as well as ST Rules laid down various procedural aspects to be followed by the Scrutiny Committee and held that the affinity test is an integral part of the determination of the correctness of the caste claim and held that the affinity test is an integral part of the determination of the correctness of the caste claim.
The two Supreme Court decisions in the matter had conflicting views. In paragraph 9 of the decision in the case of Vijakumar, it was held that if a candidate fails the affinity test at any stage, a caste validity certificate cannot be granted to him. In the case of Anand, it was held that the affinity test is not the only criterion for deciding a caste claim based on a caste certificate issued by a Competent Authority. It was held that it can be used to corroborate the documentary evidence.
The question before the court was thus as to whether paramount importance should be given to the affinity test while adjudicating upon a caste claim on the basis of a caste certificate issued by a Competent Authority. In other words, whether the affinity test is a litmus test for deciding a caste claim.
Supreme Court's Observation
The Court at the outset mentioned Kumari Madhuri Patil Vs. Addl. Commissioner [1994] INSC 445 (2 September 1994) wherein noting that it is necessary to streamline the procedure for issuance of social status certificates, their scrutiny, and their approval, procedural guidelines were laid down as the Apex Court felt that several cases were noticed where candidates on the basis of false social status certificates obtained admissions to educational institutions which necessarily had the effect of depriving admissions to genuine candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.
But when the 2000 Act came into force, the guidelines were nullified.
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