The Supreme Court has called for a thorough investigation into a suspected large-scale racket involved in issuing fake caste certificates in Tamil Nadu. The inquiry aims to verify the authenticity of certificates given to individuals claiming to belong to the Hindu Konda Reddis community.

“Caste certificate seems to be a big big problem in the State of Tamil Nadu. It appears that thousands of such certificates have been issued certifying people to be members of the Hindu Konda Reddis Community falling within Scheduled Tribe…For the present, we do not level any allegations but prima facie it appears to be a huge racket. This is something extremely dangerous,” a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said in its February 25, 2025, interim order. The bench said, “We would like to ensure whether these certificates are genuine or not. We would also like to know in what manner such caste certificates have been procured by thousands of people in the area.”

The bench was addressing an appeal challenging the Madras High Court's April 22, 2019 judgment. In that ruling, the court instructed the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) of Mettur Dam in Salem district to issue a community certificate to the petitioner's son, A Pradeepa. Additionally, the court directed that community certificates belonging to Pradeepa, her brother, sister, close relatives, and her son be sent to the State Level Scrutiny Committee for verification of their authenticity. The HC stated that "there cannot be any impediment in issuing the community certificate to the petitioner's son" because the community certificates granted to the petitioner, her sister, her brother, and other close relatives were not revoked on the day of the judgment. 

However, the court directed that once the certificate is issued to the son, the State Level Scrutiny Committee must verify the authenticity of all related certificates. In response to a Special Leave Petition challenging this decision, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court's order on November 22, 2019. On February 25, 2025, the Supreme Court revised its earlier order from November 22, 2019, permitting the committee to proceed with the inquiry. It said, “We are conscious of the fact that the State has been able to obtain an interim order by which the operation of the impugned judgment has been stayed. However, we modify the order to the extent that let the State Level Scrutiny Committee undertake an extensive inquiry into this issue at the earliest and file its report before us to enable us to proceed further in the matter. We direct the State Level Scrutiny Committee to undertake this exercise at the earliest and file its appropriate report within six weeks from today without fail.”