Saying that women of forward castes cannot claim Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe status after getting married to men belonging to either of the two communities, the Delhi high court has upheld an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) rejecting the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan’s decision to dismiss from service a woman recruited under the reserved quota for the STs.
A division bench comprising Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Siddharth Mridul upheld the decision of the CAT saying that the Sangathan was very lax in recruiting the woman and then woke up from deep slumber 15 years later to take action against her.
Another factor which went in favour of the woman was a ruling of the Supreme Court, which said that the court has to make a distinction between those who get jobs under the quota meant for persons belonging to the two communities by committing fraud upon the authorities and those who have availed of the benefit believing that they have been admitted to either of the two communities by getting married to men belonging to one of them.
The Sangathan had appointed one, Shanti Acharya Sisigi, as a primary teacher way back in 1988 under the reserved quota meant for ST candidates.
She had also produced relevant certificates issued by the deputy commissioner of Singhbhum in Jharkhand. She had got married to a person belonging to the Munda community. Fifteen years later, the sangathan issued a notice to the woman challenging her claim that she belonged to ST.