A division bench of the Gujarat High Court has sought to know from the state government the verification process that is undertaken to know the authenticity of the scheduled tribe (ST) certificate being presented by candidates for medical admission. The court has scheduled further hearing on the matter for Tuesday. The court was hearing a petition filed by the Samast Adivasi Samaj, which had challenged the ST certificates being issued to certain members of the Bharwad, Charan and Rabari community. Arguing on behalf of the petitioners, the counsels said that the right as well as benefits available to STs were exhausted by persons not entitled for such reservation, more specifically for admission into the professional medical courses of MBBS?. The petition stated that members of the Bharwad, Charan and Rabari community, residing in the Ness Areas in the forests of Aalech, Gir, and Barda were declared as Scheduled Tribe. But the state government then issued instructions to issue ST certificates to all member of the community, with the same name, but residing outside the notified areas. This, the petition said, was unjust to the members of the ST community as the above mentioned three communities are also recognised as OBCs. The petition further stated that in Gujarat, scheduled tribes caste certificates are being obtained in the Junagadh district in large numbers, based on fraudulent representations and evidences. It said that these bogus scheduled tribes caste certificate holders were eating away all the benefits meant for original Adivasis. The petition said there were a large number of unemployed engineers, Ph.D scholars and graduates in various eastern tribal districts of Gujarat, who were jobless as their jobs were being taken away by these bogus caste certificate holders. LEGAL TALK

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