CHENNAI: Holding that there is no legal bar on verifying the genuineness of the community certificate of a government employee that was obtained before 1995, the Madras High Court has dismissed the petitions of a former Chennai Port Trust employee seeking to quash an order of the state-level scrutiny committee ruling that he does not belong to the Scheduled Tribe and subsequently order the disbursement of his retirement benefits.
Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy also ordered the Chennai Port Trust to proceed with action against the employee.
The state-level scrutiny committee, had stated that the petitioner, S Jegannathan, does not belong to Hindu Urali tribe but the Urali Gounder community, which is not a Scheduled Tribe.
The judge cited an apex court pronouncement on claiming quota on fake certificates as a constitutional fraud, adding that such constitutional fraud cannot be aided by technical grounds. He said such verification can be done at any stage and there is no legal bar.
