'Huge Racket In Issuance Of Hindu ST Caste Certificates In Tamil Nadu': Supreme Court Orders 'Extensive Inquiry'

The Supreme Court has expressed suspicion over the existence of a 'huge racket' in the issuance of Hindu Konda Reddi caste certificates in Tamil Nadu and ordered a probe for 'extensive inquiry' into the authenticity of such certificates, Indian Express reported.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan called 'caste certificate a big problem' in Tamil Nadu in its 25 February interim order and said, "It appears that thousands of such certificates have been issued certifying people to be members of the Hindu Konda Reddis Community falling within Scheduled Tribe (ST)."

"For the present, we do not level any allegations but prima facie it appears to be a huge racket. This is something extremely dangerous. We would like to ensure whether these certificates are genuine or not. We would also like to know in what manner such caste certificates have been procured by thousands of people in the area," the bench added.

The case came to the Supreme Court after Madras High Court directed the State Level Scrutiny Committee for the verification of the genuineness of caste certificates issued, while also ordering issuance of the Hindu Konda Reddi caste certificate to petitioner A Pradeepa's son based on the fact that her relatives already had that certificate.

However, the Madras High Court's order was stayed by the Supreme Court on 22 November 2019. But in its 25 February order, the apex court allowed the scrutiny committee to go ahead with its probe.

"We direct the State Level Scrutiny Committee to undertake this exercise at the earliest and file its appropriate report within six weeks from today without fail," the Supreme Court said, adding that after the report, each of the petitions would be looked into independently.