Christian OBCs not eligible for reservation unless specified: HC

The Bombay high court at Goa has ruled that Christian members of other backward classes (OBC) will not be eligible for the benefits of the reservation unless the government notification specifically mentions that Christian counterparts of the specified OBC caste are entitled to quota benefits.

The high court was hearing a petition filed by Uday Chari, who challenged a decision of the caste scrutiny committee (CSC) that upheld the caste certificate granted to Hansel Fernandes, an Aam Aadmi Party candidate who won elections to the zilla panchayat from the Benaulim constituency in south Goa.

The seat was reserved for OBCs, and Fernandes, who belongs to the Mesta (carpenter) caste received a caste certificate for the same. However, after his election, his election was challenged before the scrutiny committee, which upheld his caste certificate.

“[Fernandes] belongs to the Christian community, which ordinarily does not profess to follow any caste system. Nevertheless, in the State of Goa, for historical reasons like conversion, certain communities have been specifically included in notifications issued by the government formulating the State list of OBCs, SCs, STs etc. In all such notifications, however, there is a positive and clear inclusion of members of the Christian community wherever the Government intended them to be included,” the high court said.

In his petition, Chari alleged that via a notification issued in December 2006, OBC status was granted to the Vishwakarma/Chari/Mesta community but the notification made no mention of their Christian counterparts.

He argued that the notification does not either include or clarify that this entry will also include Christian Vishwakarma/Chari/Mesta and referred to several government notifications to point out that whenever it was intended to include Christians in the State list of OBCs, the notifications said so or clarified so in clear terms.

The state government’s seniormost law officer too supported the petitioner’s contention and pointed out that “normally there are no castes among Christians [but], if any Christians were intended to be included in the State list of OBCs, notifications clearly say so by using the expression ‘including Christian…’”.

“Since, in this case, no such expression was used in the notification, it is clear that, at least as of now Christian Vishwakarma/Chari/Mesta cannot be regarded as belonging to OBCs,” the advocate general said.

“The scheme is evident that whenever the government intended to include the Christian counterparts in the state list of OBC, the government notification said so in positive and clear terms. As a corollary, wherever there is no reference to the inclusion of a Christian counterpart, it must be held that the Government did not intend to include such a Christian counterpart in the State list of OBCs,” the high court added.

Fernandes is expected to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the verdict.