MUMBAI: Former mayor and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Vishakha Raut has received a reprieve from the Supreme Court on her plea challenging her disqualification as a corporator after her caste certificate was invalidated by the Palghar District Caste Verification Committee.
Following the Palghar committee’s decision, the BMC swiftly announced Raut’s disqualification, paving the way for Gurav to stake her claim to the seat. The apex court also asked how my certificate had been invalidated. Gurav, on the other hand, is defiant. “My aim was to prove that Raut’s caste certificate was false and I succeeded.
Raut’s election as an OBC candidate from Ward 191, a politically significant ward in the Dadar-Shivaji Park area, was challenged by Priya Sarvankar Gurav (Shiv Sena), who lost the January civic elections to Raut by a narrow margin. I was defeated by 191 votes and hence I will become corporator.
On Raut’s disqualification by the BMC, her lawyer Shirish Desphande said, “Sub-sections 4 and 5 of Section 10 of the Caste Certificate Verification Act 2000, and the 2012 rules say that when an appeal is pending, corporatorship cannot be cancelled.’’ Raut said, “I have been given relief by the Supreme Court and will have to return to the divisional commissioner’s office to appeal. Let Raut exhaust the legal options she has,” she said.
Meanwhile, the state government has directed the social welfare department to appoint six retired principal judges to hear appeals regarding caste certificate validity in Maharashtra.
The decision comes after the state’s six divisional commissioners told state chief secretary Rajesh Aggarwal that work pressures prevented them from hearing these cases and there was no officer from the social welfare department to assist them.
