Centre mulls mother's SC status for children
New Delhi: The Centre is inching towards according the status of Scheduled Castes to children born to an SC woman married to a non-SC. Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has sought the opinion of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on the matter before the enactment of the law to fructify the move.
"The matter would come up for deliberations and discussion in the coming meeting of the Commission. There is an opinion in favour of granting SC status and resultant benefits to the children whose fathers are from the non-SC category," an official in the Commission said.
Ministry's move would entitle the children of a non-SC father and SC mother to be treated as SC, and get all benefits as per the Government rules. Ministry sources said the proposal would be placed before the Cabinet for consideration and approval as soon as the opinion from the Commission is received. According to the Ministry officials, the Constitution needs to be amended to accord the SC status to such children.
The officials referred to a Supreme Court judgment in December 2005 to bring home the point. The court held that an upper caste Hindu woman cannot get SC/ST status just because she marries a man from that community and she can't claim the benefit of reservation. A Bench comprising Justice SB Sinha and PK Balasubramanyan had said: "No person who is not an SC/ST by birth will be deemed a member of SC/ST merely because he or she marries a person belonging to SC/ST."
The apex court Bench set aside a Delhi High Court order, which conferred the benefit of reservation meant for the scheduled castes on a forward caste woman to contest municipal elections from a reserved constituency on the ground of her being married to an SC man.
"It is one thing to say that a lady belonging to a forward caste has been accepted by the community to which her husband belongs; it is quite another to say that her marriage has been accepted only by her husband's family," the Bench said.
"It is, therefore, beyond doubt or dispute that a person who is a high caste Hindu and not subjected to any social or educational backwardness in his/her life, cannot by reason of marriage ipso facto become a member of SC or ST. In the absence of any strict proof, s/he cannot be allowed to defeat the very provisions made by the State for reserving certain seats for disadvantaged people," the apex court observed.
Source: Indiapress.org