Sameer Wankhede moves HC against show-cause notice over caste certificate

The Narcotics Control Bureaus NCB former zonal director Sameer Wankhede has approached the Bombay High Court challenging a notice issued to him by a caste certificate scrutiny committee asking him to show cause as to why his caste certificate should not be confiscatedThe Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee had on April 29 this year issued the notice to Wankhede noting that perusal of complaints and documents proves that he Wankhede belongs to the Muslim religion and asked him to show cause as to why his caste certificate should not be cancelled and confiscatedIn his petition filed in the high court on May 4 Wankhede claimed that the notice was illegal arbitrary and issued without giving him an opportunity to defend himself He reiterated that he belongs to the Mahar community which is recognised as a Scheduled Caste SC and that he had neither given any false information nor filed any false documents while obtaining the caste certificateThe Indian Revenue Service IRS officer claimed that even though his mother was a Muslim by religion he had professed Hindu religion since birth and had been following Hindu practices and customsAt the time of the birth of the petitioner Wankhede without the petitioners fathers knowledge and consent the name Dawood K Wankhde was incorrectly provided to the hospital as fathers name and Muslim was incorrectly recorded in the birth register the petition saidWhen Wankhede was 10yearsold his father initiated necessary steps to ensure that his school records and his name in the birth register were correctedThe IRS officer also pointed out that NCP leader and state minister Nawab Malik who had filed the complaint with the committee had no locus standiThe plea said Maliks allegation that Wankhede had submitted a false and fabricated caste certificate to the Union Public Service Commission UPSC at the time of taking the central services examination was completely incorrect and falseThe respondent No 6 Nawab Malik is maliciously targeting the petitioner solely to settle their personal scores it said adding that the committee could not have held an enquiry on the basis of Maliks complaint who has a personal vendetta against Wankhede as he while discharging his duty as NCB zonal director had arrested Maliks soninlaw Sameer KhanIn the petition Wankhede sought the high court to quash the showcause notice issued by the committee and to set up a committee headed by a retired judge of the high court to enquire into the issue or transfer the enquiry from the state committee to the central committeeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever