RAIPUR: The Scheduled Tribe Development Department of Raigarh district has taken cognizance of the caste certificate issue of Ramkumar Toppo, who is contesting for Sitapur (ST) assembly constituency as a BJP candidate, following Chhattisgarh High Court intervention on October 19.
The applicant in the case, Bihari Lal Tirki, had lodged a complaint with the Scheduled Tribal Development Department and submitted the court order to the tribal development department on October 21. The tribal department has asked the applicant to be present with the documents related to Toppo’s caste certificate at the office of the additional collector at 11 a.m. on November 10, 2023, for further course of action.
Earlier, Tirki had filed a writ petition in the Chhattisgarh High Court seeking a court’s directive to the District Level Certificate Verification Committee or High Power Certification Scrutiny Committee to conduct a time-bound detailed inquiry against Toppo.
The counsel for the petitioner had submitted that the petitioner had
The petitioner has submitted a complaint/application before the district collector, Raigarh, and the Sub Divisional Officer (revenue), Lailunga tehsil, Raigarh pleading therein for enquiring into the caste certificate of Toppo. However, the respondents, including SC, the ST Development Department secretary, the district collector, Raigarh, and the SDO, had not taken any action on the complaint, the petitioner had submitted it to the court, and urged to issue an order to the concerned authorities to act upon the complaint within specified time, said Dilman Rati Minj, counsel for the petitioner.
The state counsel P Acharya submitted that the petitioner had submitted a complaint to the collector and the SDO on October 4, 2023 and before the Secretary, SC, ST Development Department, on October 13, and immediately thereafter writ petition was filed on October 13, 2023.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that though the date of filing of the writ petition is mentioned as October 13, however, it is filed only on October 16, 2023.
“Considering the date of filing of the application before the respondent authorities, I am not inclined to admit this petition. However, it is expected from the concerned authorities to take a decision on the application in accordance with law,” the Judge said.
Toppo is contesting election from Sitapur as BJP candidate while food minister Amarjeet Bhagat is contesting as Congress candidate. A permanent caste certificate had been issued to Toppo by Lailunga SDO on September 19, 2023.
The basic requirement for issuing a caste certificate is a revenue record of the family dating back to September six, 1950. If no revenue record exists, then one should obtain the Gram Sabha resolution as per the SC/ST/OBC (Regulation of Social Status Caste Certification) Act 2013. Toppo has obtained a caste certificate on a resolution passed by the Gram Sabha of Jambahar gram panchayat in Lailunga tehsil. However, the gram sabha did not specify the caste in the resolution, which is a legal flaw.
The petitioner’s counsel raised the issue in the High Court and said that it is a matter of investigation from where the surname Toppo was derived when the name Tam Kumar’s father is mentioned as Ganesh Ram, and his relatives’ names lack surnames.
