The Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that the caste of a person was determined by birth and could not be changed during his/her lifetime, even in case of personal circumstances such as marriage.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Rakesh Kainthla passed the order on a criminal revision petition filed by the State of Himachal Pradesh against a trial court verdict, which held that a woman accused under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, could not be prosecuted under the Act because she had married into a Scheduled Caste family.
As per the trial court, since the respondent-accused had married a person who belonged to the Scheduled Caste, she herself had become a member of that community. Therefore, she could not be held liable under Section 3(1)(s) of the SC & ST Act, which punished a non-SC/ST person for intentionally insulting or abusing an SC/ST person by caste name in any place within public view.
The High Court set aside this judgment on the grounds that the respondent-accused could not become a member of the Scheduled Caste after her marriage.
It held that the statutory protection under Section 3(1)(s) was meant to protect SC/ST individuals from abuse and humiliation by those who were not members of these communities. The identity of the accused, as someone who was not born into a Scheduled Caste, was critical to the applicability of this provision.
Noting that the trial court erred in concluding that the accused’s marital status granted her Scheduled Caste status, Justice Kainthla held that caste could not be altered by personal circumstances such as marriage.
The single-judge Bench remanded the case for a fresh consideration before the trial court regarding the framing of charges or the decision on discharge.