The Kerala High Court has observed that an application filed by a student belonging to a Scheduled Caste (SC) community for a caste certificate cannot be rejected for the reason that her father belonged to another religion.
Justice Devan Ramachandran made the ruling while allowing a writ petition filed by Sheeba C.K. of Kottayam against the denial of the certificate to her daughter by the tahsildar. According to her, her daughter grew up as part of the Pulaya community, suffering all attended prejudices and rigour. In fact, such a certificate was given to her daughter earlier saying that she belonged to the community. However, when it came to the application made by her for the education purpose of her daughter, it was rejected. The village officer rejected the application saying that her daughter cannot obtain a caste certificate automatically because the parents were not an inter-caste married couple.
The court observed that if the child/person is subject to the disabilities of his/her mother being a member of a Scheduled Caste, the factum of his/her father being from a different religion, would be of no relevance at all because, a contrary view would deny eligible benefits to a person who is otherwise subjected to the disability and this would be an anathema to the doctrine of “affirmative action”. Merely because only one of the parents belongs to SC/ST community, it cannot be automatically taken that it is the caste of the father which is the determinant factor. The question whether the parents are inter-caste couple or otherwise, would be irrelevant and pale into insignificance.
The court also directed the Vaikom tahsildar to reconsider the application of the petitioner and grant her daughter the necessary caste certificate.
