7. In catena of Judgements, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has cautioned that such certificate can be granted after a proper scrutiny and due verification of the records. In our view, while dealing with such matters, we have to be conscious of the fact as regards the purpose and object of seeking such a caste certificate on the basis of the mother’s social status, since the mother belongs to the reserved category. More so, if we notice that the facts are being distorted by the Petitioner forself-serving purpose.
8. In Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika v/s. State of Gujarat & Ors.1, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has concluded that if there are sufficient circumstances indicating that the child was completely away from the father and was neither influenced nor nurtured by him and, constantly lived with the mother, who was the only person who has brought her up, she can claim the certificate on the basis of her mother’s caste/tribe, if the mother belongs to a backward community.
8. In Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika v/s. State of Gujarat & Ors.1, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has concluded that if there are sufficient circumstances indicating that the child was completely away from the father and was neither influenced nor nurtured by him and, constantly lived with the mother, who was the only person who has brought her up, she can claim the certificate on the basis of her mother’s caste/tribe, if the mother belongs to a backward community.
9. In Valsamma Paul v/s Cochin University,2 the Hon’ble Supreme Court held that when a member is transplanted in the Dalits, Tribes or OBCs, he\she must of necessity also have had undergone the same handicaps and must have been subjected to the same disabilities, disadvantages, indignities or reservation. A candidate who had an advantageous start in life on being born in the forward caste and had a march in life, but, is transplanted in the Backward Caste by adoption or marriage or conversion, does not become eligible to the benefit of reservation under Article 15(4) or 16(4), as the case may be. Acquisition of the status of SC/ST, etc. by voluntary mobility into these categorieswould be a fraud on the Constitution and would frustrate the benign Constitutional policy u/A 15(4) and 16(4).
11. It is nowhere pleaded in the Writ Petition memo, which runs in to 30 pages, that her father has separated from her mother long ago orthat her mother is a destitute or that it was the mother who singularlyraised the child and it was she who has influenced and nurtured her. In the entire Petition, neither the Petitioner states that her mother was living separately along with her parents and the Petitioner was in her custody or that there are any proceedings pertaining to any marital discord between the couple or that the father had turned his back on the family and hadleft the company of the wife and the daughter and had virtually deserted them.
14. We have perused the said judgments and we find that in each of these judgments, the crystalised position of law is that the facts of the case must be carefully perused to assess as to whether the Son/Daughter, was actually in the custody of the mother and both were away from the father. The entire nurturing and up-bringing must have been done by the mother without any participation of the father. Each case has to be decided on the basis of the facts emerging from the records. The presumption that the child has the caste of the father, cannot be rebutted and such presumption may be stronger in the case where the marriage is inter-caste. But, by no means can such presumption be conclusive or irrebuttable and it is open to the child of such marriage to establish that he/she is brought up only by the mother who belongs to the scheduled caste or the scheduled tribe.
20. In so far as prayer clause 5.3 reproduced above, we call upon the State Government to consider the said aspect and since it involves a decision to be taken by the Government, it would be appropriate for the Government to constitute a proper committee which is assisted with data/information, so as to consider, whether a clause in exceptional circumstances, can be entered in the ‘Aaple Sarkar’ portal toenable an applicant to tender the details of the mother’s social status. 21. With the above observation, this Petition being devoid of merits, is dismissed. Rule is discharged
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