Caste certificate row: Bombay High Court grants relief to Congress corporator Tulip Miranda
In a major relief to Congress corporator in BMC Tulip Miranda, the Bombay High Court has stayed her disqualification over invalid caste certificate.
In Short
- Tulip Miranda won election to BMC earlier this year.
- Tulip Miranda produced a caste certificate which was later found invalid.
- The Bombay High Court has now asked BMC not to disqualify Tulip.
Bombay High Court has asked Maharashtra state government and the BMC not to disqualify Kalina Congress corporator Tulip Miranda until further order.
Staying Tulip Miranda's disqualification, Justice BR Gavai noted that in the absence of all records, it would be unfair to deny relief to the Congress corporator and the electorate who voted for her.
Earlier this year, when the elections were held, the Kalina ward was reserved for other backward caste contestants. Former corporator Brian Miranda fielded his wife Tulip from there. She won the election by more than 1,600 votes. Her lawyer Pramod Kathane told the court that it was a big margin for a local body election.
CASTE IN SHADOW
Maharashtra backward class commission had decades ago conducted a study and forwarded its recommendation to the government for inclusion of East Indian Catholic and East Indian Christians in the other backward class list.
This recommendation was accepted by Maharashtra government. Tulip claims that she is an East Indian Christian. She obtained a caste certificate for being in the other backward classes which had come under question.
However Benedict Kinny from the Samajwadi Party, who had lost to Tulip, objected to her caste certificate when she forwarded the papers for validity to the district caste scrutiny committee.
In June, the coherence cell conducted an inquiry and concluded in August that Tulip's caste certificate was invalid. With this her election itself would have become invalid. But, Tulip approached the high court, which has now given her a big relief.
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