Caste is by birth, conversion or marriage doesn’t change it says Allahabad HC

Lucknow: In a significant judgement, the Allahabad high court has said that the caste of a person is determined by birth and it does not change with the change in religion or marriage.

A single bench comprising Justice Anil Kumar (X), gave the ruling recently while dismissing a criminal appeal filed by Dinesh and others challenging a summon order issued by a district court in a case registered against them under the SC/ST Act and other sections of the IPC.

The case was registered after a woman, who hailed from SC community, had accused the petitioner and others of assaulting her and using abusive language by naming her caste.

The petitioners contended in the High Court that the complainant, though born in a Scheduled Caste family, had married a man from the dominant caste and hence she had lost her status of SC and therefore the summons for cases lodged under the SC/ST Act were invalid and should be quashed.

They contended that the complainant was a resident of West Bengal and hailed from a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community there. She, however, had married a person from the Jat community, outside her caste, and hence she could no longer claim the benefit of her original caste status.

The petitioners also pleaded that they had lodged a complaint against the accuser prior to lodging of complaint by her.

The court dismissed the petition and said that marriage did not affect the caste of a person and that existence of a cross-case was no ground to reject a complaint.

The Court said that religious conversion and marriage did not change the caste of an individual, which was determined by birth.