If A Child Is Subject To Disabilities Of Mother Being A Member Of SC Community, Factum Of Father Being From Different Religion Is Not Relevant: Kerala HC
The Kerala High Court observed that if a child is subject to the disabilities of his/her mother being a member of Scheduled Caste, the factum of his/her father being from a different religion is of no relevance.
The Court was dealing with a writ petition filed by a woman belonging to ‘Pulaya Community’ whose application for a Community Certificate in favour of her minor daughter was rejected.
A Single Bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran held, “To paraphrase, 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, as rightly pointed out by Sri.S.Vishnu, 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”.
Advocate K.V. Bhadra Kumari appeared on behalf of the petitioner while Amicus Curiae S. Vishnu (Arikkattil) appeared on behalf of the respondents.
Brief Facts -
The petitioner, who belonged to ‘Pulaya Community’ had approached the Court challenging an order, whereby, her application for a Community Certificate in favour of her minor daughter, as belonging to the said community, was rejected on the ground that her husband belonged to the Christian community and that he did not convert himself into Hinduism until now.
The petitioner asserted that her daughter grew up as part of the Pulaya Community, suffering all attended prejudices and rigour. The petitioner further asserted that she was given such Certificate earlier, certifying that she belongs to the said community. She said that, however, when it came to the application made by her for the purpose of Education of her daughter, it was rejected and therefore, it was illegal and unlawful.
The High Court in view of the above facts said, “I have no doubt that the learned Amicus Curiae has expatiated the law and the provisions very lucidly because, the acme question, whether a child or a person has suffered from the indignities and handicap of a disadvantageous community, is inherent to the factum of such person having affinity to the said Community, without any reference if his/her parents were inter-caste married couple or inter-religion married couple.”
“The learned Amicus Curiae points out that Exts.P3 and P4 establishes to some extent that the petitioner's daughter certainly had to suffer prejudices attached to a member of a SC/ST Community; and that unless there is any enquiry conducted to prove to the contrary, it would be unfair to deny her benefit, particularly when she had been granted a Certificate in the past, as evident from Ext.P2”, it noted.
The Court added that it will be justified in fully accepting the opinion of the Amicus Curiae, since there can be little doubt that he has proceeded on correct assessment and evaluation of law.
The Court, therefore, directed the Tahsildar to reconsider the application of the petitioner and grant the necessary Caste Certificate to her daughter as per law, subject to every other requirement in law being satisfied, as expeditiously as is possible, but not later than one month.
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the writ petition and set aside the impugned order.
Cause Title- Sheeba C.K v. State of Kerala (Neutral Citation: 2024:KER:23323)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Advocate K.V. Bhadra Kumari
Respondents: Amicus Curiae S. Vishnu and Spl. GP Robin Raj.
