Supreme Court To Hear Final Arguments In MP Navneet Kaur Rana’s Caste Certificate Challenge On September 2, 2021

Supreme Court today, while hearing challenge against Bombay High Court Order cancelling Caste Certificate of Independent MP, Navneet Kaur Rana, listed it for final disposal on September 2, 2021.

A Division Bench of Justice Vineet Saran and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, in today’s hearing asked the counsel(s) if the pleadings were complete.

Appearances were made by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi for the appellant, and Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal for the respondent.

Background Of The Case

Bombay High Court in its judgment dated June 8, 2021, cancelled the caste certificate of Lok Sabha Member from Amravati, Ms. Navneet Kaur Rana, holding that she obtained the same fraudulently by producing fabricated documents.

A Division Bench of Justice VG Bisht and Justice RD Dhanuka, while imposing a cost of Rs 200000 upon the respondent MP, payable to the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority, observed,

“In our view the caste claim made by the respondent no.3 for obtaining a caste certificate as schedule caste itself was fraudulent and was made with intention to obtain various benefits available to a candidate from such schedule caste category knowingly well that she does not belong to that caste. The application thus itself was made intentionally to make a fraudulent claim to enable the respondent no.3 to contest an election for Member of Parliament on the seat reserved for a scheduled caste candidate.”

Litigious Chain

The Supreme Court on June 22, 2021 had stayed Bombay High Court judgment directing MP Navneet Kaur Rana to surrender caste certificate within 6 weeks.

A Division Bench of Justice Vineet Saran and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, while directing all the respondents to file counter affidavits, posted the matter for hearing on July 27.

Case Title: Navneet Kaur Rana v. State of Maharashtra | SLP (C) No. 7776-7778 of 2021