Dehradun: The Uttarakhand High Court has set aside the cancellation of an OBC caste certificate issued to a petitioner, Mohd Danish, holding that the action was taken without giving him any opportunity of hearing and therefore violated the principles of natural justice.
Justice Pankaj Purohit passed the order on April 17 after the state, on the court’s direction, produced clarification of the basis on which the certificate was cancelled.
Danish approached the High Court challenging the July 9, 2025 order of the tehsildar by which his OBC caste certificate relating to Jhhoje/Jhojha caste was cancelled. He said the certificate was revoked without affording him any hearing before the adverse decision was taken. The High Court earlier, on April 15, directed the state counsel to obtain specific instructions on whether any opportunity of hearing was granted to the petitioner before cancelling a caste certificate that was already issued to him.
The state submitted that some interpolation was detected in the petitioner’s transfer certificate and that this formed the basis for cancellation of the caste certificate. However, the High Court noted that even according to the state’s own instructions, no opportunity of hearing was given to the petitioner before the cancellation order was passed. Justice Purohit held that once it was admitted that no hearing was provided, the impugned order could not be sustained in law. The High Court observed that cancellation of a caste certificate already granted to a person carried civil consequences and therefore could not be undertaken without following the basic requirement of hearing the affected party.
On that ground alone, the High Court quashed the tehsildar’s order dated July 9, 2025, while leaving it open to the competent authority to proceed afresh in accordance with law. The judgment said that if the authority still proposed to examine the matter, it could do so only after giving due opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.
This ruling reinforces the principle that any administrative action with civil consequences must adhere to the principles of natural justice, including the right to be heard. The High Court’s decision ensures that the petitioner’s rights were not summarily dismissed without proper procedure.
