This Maha tribe has papers, but no rights

Over 500 km from Mumbai in droughtprone Marathwada 26 impoverished villagers mdash daily wagers and small farmers from Latur and Nanded mdash gathered under a tree to count crumpled notes Their urgent goal raise Rs 50000 for the Bombay High Court Aurangabad Bench Registry Without this courtmandated predeposit to prove bona fides a landmark PIL challenging the denial of Schedule Tribe rights to the local Koli Mahadev community would be dismissed before being heardAt its heart the problem is a Britishera clerical error mdash their tribe Koli Mahadevs was wrongly classified as ldquoKolirdquo for administrative brevity Decades later this discrepancy results in them not getting their rights despite the governmentrsquos own census recording them as an ST communityPooling meager savings mdash sometimes daysrsquo or even weeksrsquo worth of wages mdash the community members raised Rs 54000 Lead petitioner Dattatraya Shivajirao Marewad contributed Rs 10000 mdash a monthrsquos pay mdash while the others pooled in anywhere from Rs 500 to Rs 5000 This collective sacrifice exposes a harrowing reality marginalised tribal families forced to crowdfund constitutional justiceThe case at a glanceAdvocate Mohanish V ThoratThe petitioners have put their plea before the Bombay High Court with Advocate Mohanish V Thorat representing them pro bonoldquoThe petition exposes severe institutional failurerdquo Advocate Mohanish says ldquoKoli Mahadevs form a major portion of Maharashtrarsquos 7 per cent tribal population Yet RTI disclosures reveal TRTI Tribal Research and Training Institute Pune possesses no baseline scientific or ethnographic research on Koli subgroups despite operating since 1962 Lacking scientific studies scrutiny committees arbitrarily reject claims over minor historical clerical omissions such as records listing ancestors as lsquoKolirsquo instead of lsquoKoli Mahadevrsquo The PIL contends this rigid approach inflicts severe constitutional violence violating Articles 14 15 21 and 342rdquoA division bench of the Bombay High Court Aurangabad Bench has since issued notices to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs Maharashtrarsquos Tribal Development Department the TRTI and state caste scrutiny committeesAdvocate Mohanish submitted extensive preindependence archives establishing the historical continuity of the Koli Mahadev community The petition contends that scrutiny committees act perversely by ignoring heavy historical evidence over postindependence clerical omissionsArchival evidence ignored PreIndependence censuses 1901ndash1931 British Bombay Presidency and Nizamrsquos Hyderabad State records classified ldquoKolirdquo as an umbrella term encompassing Mahadev Kolis often omitting subtribe adjectives due to administrative brevity and illiteracy 1951 official census The Ministry of Home Affairs publication Estimated Population by Castes 1951 ndash Bombay explicitly recognised ldquoKoli Mahadevrdquo as a Scheduled Tribe proving unbroken state recognition Ethnographic gazetteers Authoritative texts mdash including Enthovenrsquos Tribes and Castes of Bombay 1920 Hasanrsquos Nizamrsquos Dominions 1920 and the 18881908 Gazetteers mdash consistently categorised them as an aboriginal hill tribelsquoContradictory government policyrsquoThe court filings expose a glaring policy contradiction On July 22 the Maharashtra government issued a resolution establishing an eightmember highpowered committee led by a retired High Court judge to study preindependence records gazetteers and literature on the Koli community claims Advocate MohanishBy creating this committee the State officially admitted that historical research on Koli subtribes remains incomplete Yet in a tragic paradox regional scrutiny committees concurrently strip families of their tribal status using the very flawed framework currently under review mdash invalidating constitutional rights before the official study even concludes he saysldquoAfter 78 years of Independence the Koli Mahadev community still awaits comprehensive anthropological research Historical census reports 1881ndash1951 colonialera records and gazetteers must be evaluated collectively rather than selectively using isolated entries to reject genuine claims Despite operating since 1962 TRTIrsquos lack of authentic baseline research raises serious institutional questions The July 22 GR constituting a committee under a retired High Court Judge further underlines this historical gaprdquo he says ldquoOur PIL seeks an independent scientific study preservation of historical records and uniform verification guidelines to prevent arbitrary rejections We do not ask for automatic validation but a fair transparent and constitutionally consistent process This is a fight for historical truth constitutional justice and the dignity of the Koli Mahadev communityrdquoTribal youth locked out of educationDyaneshwar MudeBehind the dry legal files lie shattered dreams The inconsistency in government policy crushes brilliant tribal students striving to escape generational povertyOne of them is Sumit Keshavrao Tippanbone a bright student from Nadihattarga Latur was denied a Koli Mahadev ST Validity Certificate On September 20 2023 the Bombay HC upheld this rejectionThe authorities cited two narrow flaws distant cousins were recorded as ldquoHindu Kolirdquo in primary school registers and a 1961 ldquoMahadev Kolirdquo entry for his cousin grandfather branded suspicious due to minor ink variations by a rural schoolmasterOn the other hand Tippanbone had papers that provided his ancestors were from the tribe including 1951 Pahani Patrak revenue records showing his familyrsquos Koli Mahadev status mdash this was dismissed stating in favour of casual ldquoHindu Kolirdquo school entries a Gulbarga court record listing his ancestor as Mahadev Koli mdash this was disregarded tooRefusing to surrender Sumit filed a 2025 Review Application through Advocate Mohanish submitting crucial preconstitutional records previously missed due to poor legal literacy These included 1358 Fasali 1948 AD Nizamera birth entries a 1951 revenue extract listing his greatgrandfather as Koli Mahadev certified Gulbarga court records and MLRC land entries restricting tribal land transfers Citing the Supreme Courtrsquos Harshal Lilachand Nikumbh 2024 ruling the petition emphasises that natural ink fading in old village records cannot denote fraud Yet Sumitrsquos academic career remains frozen explains Advocate MohanishldquoSumit prepared for the MPSC exams but without ST validity his hard work met a dead end mdash not from failing tests but because we lack older lineage documentsrdquo said his uncle Dyaneshwar Mude a police constable attached to RCF police stationMude added ldquoMy promotion too has been blocked for over a decade for the same reason Despite drought hardships in Latur I contributed Rs 3000 to this PIL to save Sumitrsquos career and protect my two childrenrsquos futurerdquoRs 50KAmount the community has deposited with the High CourtPIL demands Interim Restraint Orders Restrain scrutiny committees from invalidating claims based solely on isolated ldquoKolirdquo entries until the statersquos highpowered committee finishes its report Mandatory Anthropological Inputs Require qualified anthropological evaluations in vigilance reports before rejecting claims Policy Parity for STSC Students Extend the July 2 GRrsquos sixmonth validity grace period to SCST students to end policy discrimination TimeBound Verification Framework Enforce strict statutory deadlines to resolve Class 11 applications before entrance exam results are declaredNEET dreams crushedPradnya Dhade and Bhaurao DhadePradnya Dhade from Latur scored 436 in NEETUG 2026 earning an MBBS seat Cautious she had applied for her ST Tribe Validity earlier on May 27 2025 while she was in Class 11 This was to ensure no delays in admission And yet the scrutiny committee sat on her application for over a yearHer hopes were shattered on July 2 when a State Government Resolution granted a sixmonth extension to submit validity certificates mdash but only to SEBC and OBC candidates entirely excluding STSC studentsUnder this stark policy SEBC candidates secure seats with deferred validity while ST candidates face instant cancellation due to bureaucratic delaysPradnya challenged this bias in the HC but on August 25 the court merely gave the committee three months to decide jeopardising her medical seatShe appealed to the Supreme Court and on September 8 Justices Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Alok Aradhe noted coordinate High Court orders granting ST candidates similar relief allowing her to file an urgent review petition before the High CourtHer father Bhaurao Dhade a school teacher says ldquoMy daughter scored 436 out of 720 in NEET securing an AllIndia ST Rank of 3800 mdash a score that guaranteed her an MBBS seat Yet she lost an entire academic year because authorities failed to issue her Koli Mahadev ST validity certificate despite submitting all ancestral documents and having five validities in our familyrdquoldquoWe approached the Supreme Court which directed the High Court and the High Court ordered the Caste Scrutiny Committee to decide her case within three months That deadline ends on December 4 After undergoing immense trauma she is now forced to prepare for NEET all over again which is completely unfairrdquoJuly 2Date when a GR was issued granting 6 monthsrsquo extension for SEBC and OBC certificates but no such relief for ST studentslsquoFight for future generationsrsquoThe villagers rely mostly income from daily labour and farming and livestockMadhav Wanteker 63 a retired State Bank of India head cashier now resides in Nanded but his roots trace back to Mugao village Nilanga Taluka Latur district ldquoIt is a hamlet of around 7080 people across 10 households The majority belong to the Koli Mahadev community yet they have systematically been denied their rightsrdquo he says ldquoThose who pooled money for this PIL are dailywage earners and farm labourers scraping by on barely R200 to R300 a day and that too only on days they manage to find workrdquoWantekerrsquos family includes his wife and his son and daughter in law who run a coaching centre ldquoThis issue is being taken up for the future generations so they get what is rightfully theirsrdquo he saysDatta Marewad right Madhav Wanteker Laturborn petitionerldquoWe have repeatedly approached local administrative officials bureaucrats and elected representatives for our Koli Mahadev Scheduled Tribe ST caste certificate Although a 7 per cent reservation is allocated we are consistently denied caste validity Obtaining these certificates requires pre1950 documents which most of our families simply do not possess Moreover during earlier censuses community members were issued basic ldquoKolirdquo certificates instead of ldquoKoli Mahadevrdquo No objections were taken then as majority people were unaware of their rights Because of this disparity even those documented as Koli Mahadev in historical records are being refused their rightful ST statusrdquo he addsldquoIn the Central Government list four distinct subtribes are recognised Koli Mahadev Koli Malhar Tokre Koli and Dhor Koli Yet 90 to 95 per cent of our people are systematically denied their rightful ST reservation benefits Left with no alternative we filed this PIL as a desperate last resort pooling whatever little money we could scrape together just to pay the High Court predepositrdquo says WantekerLead petitioner Datta Marewad adds ldquoI lost my father when I was young and dropped out after Class 12 I work as a security guard in Mukhed for R10000ndash12000 a month while my wife washes utensils The R10000 I contributed to this PIL is an entire monthrsquos livelihood The authorities demand pre1950 documents but my parents and grandparents passed away when I was young leaving no paper trail I want a better future for my daughters Vedika 11 and Sanvi 8 so they arenrsquot denied what is rightfully theirsrdquo