The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the caste certificate of BJP MP from Amravati, Navneet Rana, setting aside the previous verdict passed by the Bombay High Court.
The top court set aside the verdict of the Bombay High Court, which cancelled the caste certificate of Amravati MP and BJP leader Navneet Kaur Rana.
Allowing the plea of Rana, a bench comprising justices JK Maheshwari and Sanjay Karol said the high court should not have interfered with the report of the scrutiny committee on the issue of caste certificate of Rana.
Rana was accused of fabricating documents to obtain scheduled caste certificate to fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as an independent from reserved constituency of Amravati.
On June 8, 2021, the high court had said the 'mochi' caste certificate was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents by Rana. It had also imposed a fine of ₹2 lakh on the Amravati MP, saying the records indicated that she belonged to the 'Sikh-Chamar' caste.
Previously, the Bombay High Court ruled that the terms ‘Chamar’ and ‘Sikh Chamar’ were not synonymous.
The High Court said in 2021, "In our view, the terms 'Chamar' and 'Sikh Chamar' are not synonymous. The terms 'Sikh Chamar' is also not synonymous with the term 'Mochi' prescribed under entry 11 to the Schedule II to the Constitution of India (Scheduled Caste), Order 1950."
Navneet Rana won from the reserved Amravati constituency in Maharashtra in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She will be contesting from the Amravati seat once again, and expressed confidence for the upcoming polls before filing her nomination.
Rana told ANI, “I have been working for the people of my region for many years. This is a big day for me and my constituency. This is the first time that voters in Amravati are getting a chance to vote for the nation-building, development and benefit of the nation.”
“The people of my constituency are happier than me. They are happy that for the first time, the lotus symbol will appear on the ballot box. The people will directly support and vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” she added.
(Courtesy:- Hindustan Times, 4 April 2024)
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