CASTE CANNOT BE CHANGED BY THE VIRTUE OF MARRIAGE

CASTE CANNOT BE CHANGED BY THE VIRTUE OF MARRIAGE

VERSHA SINGH 

BACKGROUND:

Caste of a parson is the hereditary classes of the Hindu society which is distinguished by relative degrees of ritual purity or pollution and of social status. When a person is born in a particular family belonging to a specific caste, by default the family's caste becomes his/her caste also. The caste of a person cannot be changed even if they get married to a person of a different caste. A girl belonging to scheduled caste even after being married to a boy of belonging to any general caste category, it will not make any difference in the caste of either person.

CURRENT ISSUE (CASTE CANNOT BE CHANGED BY THE VIRTUE OF MARRIAGE):

Recently, the honourable High Court of Madras has reiterated that a person's caste is determined only on the basis of birth and caste cannot be changed by the virtue of marriage. The order was passed by Justice N. Anand Venkatesh while he was adjudicating upon a petition. The petition was filed by one K. Shanthi, through Advocate R. Karunanidhi, seeking directions of the District Collector to pay her the relief amount as mentioned under the Rule 12 (4) of the SCHEDULED CASTE AND SCHEDULED TRIBES (PREVENTION OF ATROCITIES) AMENDMENT RULES, 2016.

The petitioner sought the compensation of an amount of Rs. 1,50,000/- under Rule 12 (4) of the Rules, 2016, but the collector did not consider her representation.

During the trial, the Additional PP, S. Chandrasekaran submitted that the petitioner was not entitled any compensation. When the District Collector conducted an independent enquiry it was found that even though she belonged to the scheduled caste community since birth, she is now following Christianity. It was also clarified that her husband also belonged to backward class and has converted himself to Christianity. According to the report after the enquiry, it was very much clear that the petitioner would also come under the Backward Class Community.

Justice Venkatesh, while dismissing the argument said that because the husband of the petitioner was a Christian, would not ipso facto mean that she too was a Christian. He stated, " There is absolutely no material to show that the petitioner has also converted herself into a Christian. Even if the husband of the petitioner is following Christianity, that does not automatically make the petitioner a Christian and her original status, wherein, she belongs to the Scheduled Caste Community, will continue".

He further clarified that the caste of a person cannot be affected by marriage, he added " Caste of a person has to be determined only based on the birth and it cannot be changed by virtue of marriage. The real test is that one should have suffered disabilities socially, economically and educationally."

Reliance was placed on Sunita Singh vs State of UP & ORS., (2018) 2SCC 493, wherein the Apex Court had indisputably held that there should be no dispute on the issue that the caste is determined by the birth and cannot be changed by the virtue of marriage with a person of Scheduled Caste. Her husband belonged to scheduled caste category, therefore, the appellant should not have been issued with a caste certificate showing that she belonged to scheduled caste.

Further on censuring the State's feeble defence, the court stated that the collector's stand was opposite to the Police's findings which had recognised the petitioner as a person of scheduled caste category in its final report and had committed the same to the Special Court. The court further said that such acts were only performed by the contradictory stand so as to deprive the petitioner of the compensation amount for which she is entitled under the above-stated Rules.

Accordingly, the collector will have to pas (as directed by the authority) compensation worth Rs. 1,50,000/- (75% total relief of Rs. 2,00,000/- ) to the petitioner in accordance with Rule 12 (4) of Rules, 2016 within six weeks.

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CONCLUSION:

Caste is something which a person gets as soon as he/she is born. No matter to whom you marry or get converted into another religion post-marriage, your caste will remain unchanged. The authority issuing the caste certificates should be careful about to whom they are issuing it, in order to avoid such cases where people get a fake scheduled caste certificate for n number of reasons. Anyone found with fake certificates is liable for compensation.

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