SC sets aside HC verdict cancelling Amravati MP Rana’s caste certificate

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday restored the scheduled caste certificate of sitting Amravati MP Navneet Kaur Rana, in a huge last-miniute relief that cleared the decks for her to contest the Maharashtra seat reserved for dalits on a BJP ticket.

Pronouncing the order on the last day of nomination for the seat, the apex court set aside the 2021 Bombay High Court verdict on a plea seeking cancellation of her caste certificate dated August 30, 2013 issued by a Mumbai deputy collector who held she belonged to the ‘Mochi’ caste. Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul had filed a complaint with the Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee, which had ruled in Rana’s favour and validated the certificate. He had then approached the high court, which ordered cancellation of Rana’s caste certificate.

Adsul had contended that Rana obtained the certificate using forged and fabricated documents that were acquired using the influence of her husband Ravi Rana, an MLA.

Both ‘Chamar’ and ‘Mochi’ castes figure in chapter 2 of “The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) order, 1950. The ‘Chamar’ caste also figures among the notified scheduled castes list of Punjab.

Mochi is a sub-caste of the Chamar community that deals with leather business. The Chamars usually process the hides, while the Mochis make leather products from them.

Rana, who joined the BJP some time ago, had won Amravati Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate backed by Sharad Pawar’s NCP in 2019. She has been nominated by the BJP to contest Lok Sabha polls from the seat this time.