Recently, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court ruled that the mere presence of a cross or images of Jesus Christ in a household cannot be treated as evidence of religious conversion. Setting aside the decision of the Akola Caste Scrutiny Committee, the Court directed authorities to grant a Scheduled Caste certificate to a college student whose claim had been rejected on the assumption that his family had converted to Christianity. The Court made it clear that caste entitlements cannot be curtailed on the basis of speculative claims of religious conversion.
The case arose when an Akola based student approached the High Court after the district caste scrutiny committee refused to recognise his Scheduled Caste status. The committee had concluded that the petitioner’s forefathers had embraced Christianity, primarily relying on the presence of a cross and images of Jesus in the family home, along with a school record from 1962 describing the family as Christian.
The student, however, maintained that no religious conversion had ever taken place. He argued that his grandfather had identified himself as Christian in school records merely to escape caste discrimination, and produced several government and educational records, including a caste validity certificate issued to a close relative, to support his claim.
The Division Bench of Justice Mukulika Jawalkar and Justice Nandesh Deshpande found the committee’s reasoning legally untenable. The Court emphasized that claims of religious conversion must be supported by verifiable evidence and not inferred from religious symbols kept at home. The Bench observed that “any allegation of conversion must be supported by documentation of baptism rituals or a baptism certificate,” stressing that authorities must first determine whether formal conversion rites had actually taken place.
At last, holding the committee’s findings to be “patently erroneous” and “perverse,” the Court quashed the impugned order and directed the issuance of a Scheduled Caste certificate to the petitioner.
Disclaimer: This news/ article includes information received via a syndicated news feed. The original rights remain with the respective publisher.
Picture Source :
