Srinagar: The Social Welfare Department has informed all deputy Commissioners about the Union Home Ministry’s guiding principle that no person who was not a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe by birth will be deem to be a member of the particular category merely because he or she had married a person belonging to a SC or ST, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has been informed.
“While conveying the decision to all the Deputy Commissioners, the clarification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs has also been relied upon with a view to resolve the issue of SC and ST Certificates wherein the guiding principle which has been relied upon by the appropriate authority is that no person who was not a SC and ST by birth will be deem to be a member of SC or ST category merely because he or she had married a person belonging to a SC or ST,” the government informed the a bench of Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal while hearing a related plea.
Similarly, the government said, a person who is a member of the SC or ST would continue to be a member of the SC or ST, as the case may be even after his or her marriage with a person who does not belong to a SC or ST.
The Social Welfare Department had examined the matter in consultation with the Law Department and necessary clarification with regard to the issuance of the SC and ST and OBC Certificate to the married woman has already been communicated to all Deputy Commissioners of J&K and also to the Revenue Department wherein it has been held in unambiguous terms that a woman cannot be denied her SC/ST/OBC status after marriage to a non-SC/ST/OBC person, as a woman’s caste is determined by birth and not by marriage, the government added