Have you ever thought that a person belonging to the General Category can get reservation benefits if he marries an SC/ST partner? This question comes with the question of caste along with marriage in Indian society and there are many ideologies on this. In this article, you will find the answer to this question and know whether an ordinary person gets reservation benefits by marrying an SC/ST partner.
In the first step, we should try to understand what the reservations meant for reserved castes are. Reserved castes in India receive reserved seats in various fields, such as government jobs, admission to universities, and other social benefits. Its objective is to protect the people of those castes from discrimination based on caste in society and to allow them to move towards a better life.
If a person belonging to the general category marries someone belonging to a reserved category, can he avail the benefits of that caste? The Supreme Court has answered this question. The Supreme Court asserted that caste is unequivocally ascribed at birth and remains unaltered even through marriage to someone from a Scheduled Caste. The court further clarified that if a woman is born into a higher caste family, she does not qualify for reservation benefits, regardless of her marriage to an individual from a Scheduled Caste background. In essence, her caste status remains unchanged in the eyes of the law.
The Supreme Court on Thursday canceled the appointment of a woman teacher, who had joined Kendriya Vidyalaya 21 years ago by taking advantage of a reservation, because she was married to a Scheduled Caste man. Sunita Singh, who belongs to the general category, marries a husband belonging to the reserved category and also gets his caste certificate made. Based on this, she obtained the job of a teacher and worked for 21 years.
One complaint was lodged in 2013. After inquiry, their cast certificate is canceled. In 2015, he was also terminated from his job. After which she challenged in Allahabad High Court, after which her petition was dismissed. After this, she moved to the Honorable Supreme Court. There the Supreme Court says that a person’s caste is determined by his date of birth, so here marrying someone in the reserved category does not change the caste.
