New Delhi: The Delhi High court has rejected a plea by a lady seeking directions for issuance of scheduled caste certificate for her two children as she belong to that caste and her husband belongs to upper caste.
The application was for the review of an order of a single judge bench of the court. The single bench had upheld the Executive Magistrate of Delhi Cantonment who had earlier rejected her appeal for her children to be assigned Scheduled Caste certificates, because she too is from that caste.
The single bench order of August 14, 2019 was upheld by the bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad.
The appellant, Rumy Chowdhury, is a Wing Commander in the Indian Air Force. She hails from a scheduled caste community in Assam. In 1999 she married Vikas Hora, who is also with the Indian Air Force. Hora belongs to a forward caste. Their two sons were born out of wedlock in 2001 and 2004. Rumy filed for divorce in May 2005 in a court in Tezpur, alleging cruelty. She got her divorce on March 7, 2009. Thereafter Rumy and her two children stayed at the Air Force Station in Jorhat, Assam and then in Delhi.
Rumy claimed before court that her two children were entitled to a certificate certifying that they belong to the same community to which she belongs.
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In his order of March 31, 2019, the Executive Magistrate had observed:
“The nexus between the children and the community is the real test for grant of a community certificate. It was held that, in the absence of any evidence to support the fact that the children have grown-up in the company of the relations on the maternal side and that the appellant and the children had attended all family holidays, ceremonies, rituals, gatherings, etc. held in the village of the appellant, the children would not be entitled to the caste certificate, as prayed for.”
Read the judgment here;
caste-order-India Legal Bureau