• The Supreme Court has ruled that children born out of inter-caste marriages cannot be denied the benefits of reservation on the mere ground that one of the parents belonged to upper caste.
  • A bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai passed the ruling upholding an appeal filed by a person challenging Gujarat Government's decision to strip him of reservation benefits under ST quota as his father belonged to the upper caste Kshatriya community.
  • The bench said in an inter-caste marriage or a marriage between a tribal and a non-tribal there may be a presumption that the child has the caste of the father.
  • This presumption may be stronger in the case where in the inter-caste marriage or a marriage between a tribal and a non-tribal the husband belongs to a forward caste.
  • The apex court added but by no means the presumption is conclusive or irrebuttable and it is open to the child of such marriage to lead evidence to show that he/she was brought up by the mother who belonged to the scheduled caste/scheduled tribe.
 
Top