While scrutinising caste status, the authorities must adopt a lenient approach and not expect a Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) member to prove their case like an ordinary citizen, observed the Kerala High Court.
The Division Bench of Justices A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and A.K. Preetha held that the authorities should look at the overall circumstances, including the extension of social security benefits to other family members and extended family.
V. Balan of Thrissur, a retired postal assistant, had approached the Division Bench challenging the order of a Single Bench, which had held that he had not provided enough evidence to back his claims regarding his caste status.
He obtained regular appointment as postman in 1980 under the ST quota based on a caste certificate issued by a tahsildar showing him as belonging to the Malai Pandaram community. During his service, a Vigilance inquiry was conducted into the genuineness of his caste status at the request of his employers, the postal service. The inquiry concluded that Mr. Balan belonged to the Pandaram (Veera Saiva) community, part of the Other Backward Classes, and not the Malai Pandaram community, as he claimed.
The report submitted to the Scrutiny Committee for Verification of SC/ST Claims declared that his family members would not be eligible for benefits reserved exclusively for ST members.
While considering Mr. Balan’s petition against the committee’s action, the single judge held that the Vigilance report was filed after a detailed anthropological study, and there was no scope to interfere.
Mr. Balan argued before the Division Bench that the committee initiated proceedings against him without considering his detailed objections, and that the documents which were used to determine his caste status were never provided to him.
The court said that the denial of constitutionally guaranteed privileges to members of SC/ST communities must only be in exceptional cases of apparent fraud that is established through material independently available to the State, including proof of the alleged fraud, if any, committed by the authorities who issued the caste certificate based on which the person concerned obtained the service benefits.
Published – September 08, 2026 01:41 am IST
