The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has said that the caste of children born to divorced or separated interfaith couples should not be determined on the basis of the caste of the parent with whom the children reside with.
This should also not be the sole factor considered for issuing caste certificates.
Acting on a petition from a Kollam student, the commission, comprising members K. Nazeer and Reni Antony, directed the Chief Secretary, Revenue Secretary, and the Public Administration Secretary, to issue orders asking officials to follow the panel’s recommendation.
The petitioner said that her application for a caste certificate to appear for the KEAM examinations was denied by a tahsildar at the Kollam taluk office and the village officer of Mayyanad. In her petition, the student said she was born to an interfaith couple, her father belonging to the Hindu Cheruman community and mother a Latin Catholic. They were living separately for the past four years. In the petitioner’s school certificate, her religion was the same as that of her father.
The commission heard the petitioner and her mother and the tahsildar and the village officer in an online hearing.
The respondents said they had received the petitioner’s application for the caste certificate. A certificate showing her caste to be the same as that her father could be issued if her mother submitted an affidavit that the petitioner still followed the religious practices of her father, and had not converted to her mother’s religion, and if the village officer submitted a testimonial that both the petitioner and her father followed the practices of his religion.
The panel pointed out that in Indira vs. Kerala government, the High Court had ruled that the caste of children born to interfaith couples should be decided on the basis of the father’s caste and an investigation by the authorities into which caste practices were followed by the children.
In Punit Rai Vs. Dinesh Chaudhary too, it had been ruled that the caste of children born to interfaith couples should be decided on the basis of the father’s caste. In the wake of the court judgments, the government had issued an order in this regard in 2005. In 2019, the panel too had recommended to the government to frame guidelines to end the discrimination faced by children born to interfaith couples and issue caste certificates.
The petitioner should be issued a caste certificate with her father’s caste as soon as her mother submitted an affidavit to the tahsildar that her daughter lived as per her father’s caste practices, that he too observed these, and that her daughter had not converted to her religion, the commission said.
