The Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered an inquiry into the caste certificate of a woman minister in the Mohan Yadav government, directing authorities to verify its validity within two months and submit a detailed report on the findings.
Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered an inquiry into the caste certificate of a woman minister in the Mohan Yadav government and gave the authorities two months to complete the investigation.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Agrawal and Justice Avanindra Kumar Singh directed the state’s high-level caste scrutiny committee to verify whether the caste certificate of minister of state for urban administration Pratima Bagri is genuine.
The committee has been asked to submit its findings by June 30.
The court also ruled that if the committee does not submit its report by the deadline, then the petitioner will be permitted to bring the writ petition back before the court.
The petitioner, Congress leader Pradeep Ahirwar, had approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur about a year ago, requesting an investigation into Ms. Bagri’s caste certificate.
At the time, she had represented the Raigaon Assembly constituency in Satna district a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes.
Mr. Ahirwar alleged that the Bagri community does not belong to the Scheduled Caste category in that area. He claimed that Bagris are part of the upper-caste Rajput and Thakur groups.
Mr. Ahirwar further contended that the minister obtained benefits meant for Scheduled Castes by claiming to be from the Scheduled Caste category.
He also stated that he had previously approached the high-level caste scrutiny committee to challenge Ms. Bagri’s caste certificate but did not receive any response. After that, he moved the High Court seeking a probe into the matter.