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‘Marriage does not entitle one to reservation’

The benefit of reservation available to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes cannot be claimed by virtue of marriage.

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The benefit of reservation available to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes cannot be claimed by virtue of marriage. The Bombay High Court recently dismissed a petition filed by Nashik resident Hemlata Bacchav, a Maratha by birth but married to a Mahadev Koli from a scheduled tribe.

After marriage, Bacchav, 28, was appointed as a junior assistant in the Nashik Zilla Parishad in 2003 under the quota reserved for STs. In December 2006, after scrutiny of her caste certificate, her services were terminated. Bacchav challenged the termination order citing Maharashtra government resolutions (GRs) of 1959 and 1966 under which she was eligible to all concessions granted to that scheduled tribe.

The court relied on a 1996 Supreme Court order, which held that a person who derived an advantageous start in life by virtue of birth in a forward community and was transplanted in a backward class by virtue of marriage, was not eligible for the benefit of reservation. The SC observed that acquisition of status of scheduled caste by voluntary mobility would amount to playing fraud upon the Constitution.

Justices Ranjana Desai and Roshan Dalvi said the law on the issue was well settled. However, since the GRs of 1959 and 1966, which encouraged inter-caste marriages, were never challenged, the judge noted that in view of the SC order, the two GRs must be deemed to be impliedly set aside. 

Bacchav, however, said she had not misrepresented facts to her employer. She had submitted documents for issue of caste certificate showing that she belonged to the scheduled tribe by virtue of marriage and not by birth.

 

 

 

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