The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will hear in July Lok Sabha MP Navneet Kaur Rana's appeal challenging the Bombay High Court verdict cancelling her caste certificate. The Independent MP represents Maharashtra's Amravati constituency, reserved for Scheduled Castes. A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and J K Maheshwari adjourned the matter after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Rana, said the matter will take some time. “We will have it in July,” the bench said. The matter is likely to come up before a new bench after the vacation as Justice Saran is due to retire on May 10.
On June 22 last year, the top court stayed the high court verdict cancelling Rana's caste certificate. Mumbai High Court had said the caste certificate was obtained fraudulently using fabricated documents and had also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on her. Rana, backed by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), won from Amravati in 2019 by claiming to be a member of the 'Mochi' caste.
The High Court, in its judgement, had asked Rana to surrender the certificate within six weeks and had asked her to pay a penalty of Rs two lakh to the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority within two weeks. HC had held that Rana's claim of belonging to the 'Mochi' caste for obtaining the Scheduled Castes certificate itself was fraudulent and made with the intention of obtaining various benefits available to a candidate from such category, despite knowing she does not belong to that caste.