The Supreme Court of India. (Photo: sci.gov.in)
India’s top court has denied a Hindu caste certificate to the daughter of a Catholic woman with a Hindu husband to avail benefits from the nation’s affirmation policy that includes job quotas.
The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal on Nov. 26, filed by C Selvarani who wanted a Valluvan caste certificate to get a government clerical job in a southern state under the reservation quota allowed for lower caste Hindu communities (Dalits).
The court dismissed her petition, saying she belongs to the Christian community which does not fall under the purview of the affirmation policy that is reserved for lower caste Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist communities, who are called scheduled castes.
Selvarani’s mother is a Christian and her father belongs to the Valluvan caste, a declared scheduled caste in the country.
The appellant “professes Christianity and actively practices the faith by attending church regularly,” Justices Pankaj Mithal and R Mahadevan said in the court ruling.
Selvarani approached the apex court after the southern Madras High Court dismissed her demand for the certificate in 2023.
While rejecting her plea, the top court said Selvarani was a baptized Christian and could not provide credible evidence of her re-conversion to Hinduism.
Religious conversions undertaken solely to avail reservation benefits without genuine belief amounted to “fraud on the constitution,” the ruling also noted.
Church leaders, however, refused to comment on the ruling.
Out of 25 million Christians in India, nearly 60 percent hail from the lower strata of society. India started the affirmation policy after independence from Britain in 1947.
However, lower caste Christians and Muslims are not included in the policy which gives benefits like job quotas, reservation of seats in state-run educational institutions and legislative bodies.
The ruling comes at a time when the three-member commission led by former Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan is studying whether socially poor Christians and Muslims are eligible for the nation’s affirmative action policy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government appointed the commission in 2022.
source : uca news