Caste Certificate to be issued by Competent Authority

Caste Certificate to be issued by Competent Authority.—

1. (1) The Competent Authority may, upon receipt of an application under section 3, and after satisfying itself about the genuineness of the claim and by following the procedure as prescribed, issue a Caste Certificate within such time limit and in such form as may be prescribed or reject the application for reasons to be recorded in writing.
2. (2) The Competent authority shall reject the application for caste certificate, if it finds that there is any fraud, misrepresentation or suppression of facts by the applicant: Provided that, the rejection by the Competent Authority on the ground of fraud, misrepresentation or suppression of facts shall not debar any person from applying de-novo for a caste certificate based on proper, genuine and authentic material.
3. (3) A Caste Certificate issued by any person, officer or authority other than the Competent Authority shall be invalid. The Caste Certificate issued only by the Competent Authority shall be valid and it shall be subject to the verification and grant of validity certificate by the Scrutiny Committee.
4. (4) Subject to the proviso of sub-section (2), no new application seeking issuance of a Caste Certificate shall be entertained by the Competent Authority, if the earlier request or claim of the same applicant has been rejected by the Competent Authority and the same is confirmed by the Appellate Authority or the validation of the Caste Certificate of same applicant stands rejected by the Scrutiny Committee on prior occasion.