Mumbai, Oct 30 (IANS): In a significant development, a state government appointed retired Justice Sandeep Shinde Committee, that scrutinized 1.72 crore old documents has detected at least 11,530 'Kunbi Caste' certificates issued to Marathas in the past, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said here on Monday.

The panel has examined a whopping 1.72 crore documents from Maharashtra and Telangana where the Marathas were classified as 'Kunbi Caste' during the Nizam era.

The Justice Shinde Committee has found 11,530 such '‘Kunbi Caste' certificates and is examining more documents to unearth more 'Kunbi Caste' certificates.

This effectively confirms Maratha leader Manoj Jarange-Patil's earlier claims that earlier, the Marathas were included in the "Kunbi Caste" as OBCs and hence demanded that they should be given separate quotas from the OBCs.

Jarange-Patil had claimed that his group had submitted more than 5,000 ‘Kunbi Caste’ certificates even to the government and had pressed for Maratha quotas accordingly. CM Shinde chaired a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee formed on the caste issue where the Justice Shinde Committee submitted its preliminary report on the Maratha reservations imbroglio. The CM said that the Justice Shinde Committee’s preliminary report will be tabled before the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and it will be accepted, after which further necessary steps would be initiated. “Since it’s a voluminous task as the Shinde Committee has to scrutinize many more documents to detect ‘Kunbi Caste’ entries, the panel has sought a two-month extension, which we have given. However, we have requested that it should submit its report as early as possible, before two months,” said Shinde. The government has also set up an advisory panel of three retired judges – who have prepared separate committee reports on the Maratha quotas issue – has been formed to advise the government on the proposed curative petition being filed in the Supreme Court, especially pertaining to certain anomalies to ensure that it withstands legal scrutiny, said Shinde. The advisory panel comprises – Justice M. G. Gaikwad (2019 report), Justice Dilip Bhosale (2021 report) and the ongoing committee of Justice Sandeep Shinde (2023 preliminary report), said the CM.