Child can claim reservation through mother: Madras High Court rejects ‘patriarchy’ stand

The Madras High Court has ruled that a child's reservation rights cannot be denied solely based on the patrilineal tracing of caste. The court dismissed Puducherry's argument that society is patriarchal, stating that social disadvantage, not lineage, is the determining factor for granting community certificates under the Puducherry administration.

Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy addressed 28 petitions concerning community certificates and reservation benefits in education and employment. The key issue was whether candidates could claim Scheduled Caste (SC), Most Backward Class (MBC) or Other Backward Class (OBC) status through their Puducherry-native mothers when their fathers were migrants from other states.

The court emphasized that social disadvantage, rather than whether the lineage is patrilineal or matrilineal, matters in determining eligibility for reservation. The candidates, born and raised in Puducherry, had mothers with SC, MBC or OBC status certificates from the same community, while their fathers were mostly from neighboring Tamil Nadu districts.

The court rejected the administration's "patriarchal society" argument, stating that despite historical patriarchal norms, this belief cannot be perpetuated in the face of constitutional principles of equality and non-discrimination. The court noted that the traditional belief that vamsam or lineage can only be traced patrilineally is a stereotype rooted in misogyny.

Ultimately, the court ruled that the ultimate test is whether the child was brought up in the mother's SC or ST community and faced the same deprivations, indignities, humiliations and handicaps as other members of that community. The high court held that there does not need to be a separate enabling statutory provision to grant a community certificate based on the mother's nativity.

The earlier Puducherry rule requiring SC-origin status to be determined only by the father's residence was struck down. The candidates are now entitled to reservation benefits in Puducherry education and employment, provided their caste claim is true and their mother's nativity is established.