- Every person desirous of contesting election to a seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or as the case may be, Backward Class of Citizens, shall be required to submit, alongwith the nomination paper, Caste Certificate issued by the Competent Authority and the Validity Certificate issued by the Scrutiny Committee in accordance with the provisions of the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Act, 2000.]

[Provided that, for the General or bye-elections for which the last date of filing of nomination falls on or before the 31st December 2017, in accordance with the election programme declared by the State Election Commission, a person who has applied to the Scrutiny Committee for the verification of his Caste Certificate before the date of filing the nomination papers but who has not received the validity certificate on the date of filing of the nomination papers shall submit, alongwith the nomination papers,-

(i) a true copy of the application preferred by him to the Scrutiny Committee for issuance of the validity certificate or any other proof of having made such application to the Scrutiny Committee; and

(ii) an undertaking that he shall submit, within a period of [twelve months] from the date of his election, the validity certificate issued by the Scrutiny Committee: