Caste certificate can’t be invalid because sibling got scholarship under different caste: Karnataka HC

The case involved petitioner Prabhu Haveri, who had approached the high court against two social welfare department orders from 2018 and 2021 cancelling his caste certificate. He argued that he and his family members belonged to the Hindu Bhovi caste and had been issued a caste certificate certifying the same by the tahsildar.

When his brother joined a private college, he allegedly did so claiming to be a member of the Sunagar caste. Based on this, Prabhu’s caste certificate was cancelled by the tahsildar in 2010 for allegedly fraudulently claiming to be from the Hindu Bhovi caste. Subsequently, the social welfare department orders were passed, confirming the cancellation.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that when the caste certificates of his brother and sister showed Hindu Bhovi as the caste, it was impossible that he alone could be of a different caste. It was argued that the only reasoning behind this was the erroneous grant of a scholarship to his brother.

Looking into the 2021 order against the petitioner, the court stated, “The reason clearly depicts that the brother of the petitioner had claimed scholarship under Backward Class Category-I from the Department of Backward Class and Minority… There are plethora of documents appended to the petition by which it is clearly demonstrable that members of family of the petitioner and the petitioner belong to Hindu Bhovi caste. The caste certificate issued in the year 2007 has been revalidated for over 11 years later.”

The court added, “The greed of the brother of the petitioner in securing scholarship has led to a situation, where the members of the family, brothers and sisters continued to be Hindu Bhovi, but a sibling is now depicted to be belonging to a backward class…It is trite that such act of securing scholarship cannot mask the caste status of the person, which has been granted, affirmed and re-affirmed by validation every time. The solitary circumstance cannot be projected as the reason for cancellation of the caste certificate.”

Having made these observations, the court quashed the challenged orders.