The Supreme Court on April 4, 2024, confirmed the validity of the ‘Mochi’ caste certificate of Lok Sabha member Navneet Kaur Rana.
A Bench headed by Justice J.K. Maheshwari set aside a Bombay High Court verdict of June 2021.
The High Court had cancelled the caste certificate on the ground that it was obtained using fabricated documents. It had imposed a fine of ₹2 lakh on the parliamentarian, who had won as an independent candidate backed by the Nationalist Congress Party from the reserved constituency of Amravati in Maharashtra in 2019. The High Court had concluded that she belonged to the ‘Sikh-Chamar’ caste.
“The application (for caste certificate) was made intentionally to make a fraudulent claim to enable Ms. Rana to contest the election for the post of Member of Parliament on a seat reserved for a scheduled castes candidate,” the High Court had concluded.
The High Court had passed the order on a plea seeking cancellation of the caste certificate issued by the Mumbai Deputy Collector’s office on August 30, 2013 identifying her as a member of the ‘Mochi’ community.
The certificate courted controversy when Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul had filed a complaint with the Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, which ruled in Rana’s favour and validated the certificate. He had then approached the High Court.
The complaint had alleged that Ms. Rana had obtained the certificate with the influence of her husband, Ravi Rana, who was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
