- The Honourable High Court of Bombay in the case of Dr. Sonal Pratapsingh Vahanwala v. Deputy District Collector of Dharavi Division, Mumbai City & Ors. [Writ Petition No.3771 Of 2021] has adjudicated that
- The application by a single Mother for issuance of caste certificate of her caste to her son is valid and tenable when such a child was raised by her.
- The present petition challenged the order passed by District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee upholding the order of Deputy District Collector by which the application made by the petitioner for issuance of caste certificate of her caste to her son was rejected for want of documents from paternal side.
- The petitioner contended that she had validly adopted the child with due permission from City Civil Court, Mumbai as per the provisions of Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. She was the mother of the adoptive son. Her caste was “Hindu Mahyavanshi” (a scheduled caste).
- This caste was recorded in all the documents of the child. The details of biological parents of the child were not known even to the orphanage and hence those particulars could not be provided to the respondents.
- Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the orders of authorities show non-applicability of minds and were illegal. Since, all the documents issued by the civil court were submitted at the time of application, the reasons recorded for rejection of the application for issuance of caste certificate by the petitioner were not tenable.
- Learned Additional Government Pleader, appearing for the state, contended that in terms of the Government Resolution dated 1st November, 2001, one of the mandatory conditions for issuance of caste certificate of schedule caste/schedule tribe would be that the caste record from paternal side was to be produced. Hence, the claim ought to be rejected.
- The Honourable High Court observed that Respondents had missed the vital aspect of the matter. In light of the facts, there was no possibility of procurement or production of the documents of the caste of biological father of the child as the information regarding the same was unavailable.
- In light of section 9 of the act, ‘Children of the World India Trust’ was the guardian of the child at the time of adoption. The Civil Court during inquiry was satisfied that the adoption would be for the welfare of the child.
- The Court observed that the authorities ignored the provision of section 12. As per the provisions of section 12 of the Act, by a deeming fiction the adopted child becomes a child of his or her adoptive parent for all purposes with effect from the date of the adoption. All the relations of the child in the family of birth would come to an end and replaced by those created by the adoption in the adoptive family. Such a child would also take the caste of the adoptive parent.
- The facts of the present petition were similar to that of Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika V. State of Gujarat & Ors., where the Apex Court had held that by virtue of being the son of a forward caste father, the child did not have any advantageous start in life but on the contrary suffered the deprivations, like any other member of the community to which his/her mother belonged. Hence, such a child was allowed to take the caste of the mother.
- If the reason recorded by the respondents would be upheld, the child would be without identity throughout his life. Hence, Government Resolution would not be applicable here. In view of the stand taken by Apex Court on the matter, the petition was allowed.
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