MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has allowed the plea filed by a woman from the city, who had sought that her adopted son be granted a valid caste certificate based on her own such document.
A bench of Justices SB Shukre and GA Sanap on Tuesday allowed the plea and directed the concerned deputy collector in the city to issue a caste certificate to the boy within two weeks of the receipt of the court order.
The bench was hearing the plea filed by the woman, who is unmarried and had adopted her son in 2009.
She had challenged the state government's decision denying her adopted son a caste certificate based on her caste.
The state government had previously told the high court that there was no provision to issue a caste certificate to a child adopted by a single mother, as such certificate required one's documents from one's paternal side.
The petitioner told the court that there was no father's name on the child's birth certificate and it just had his biological mother's name.
And after his adoption, the boy had been using the petitioner's middle name and her surname.
Therefore, she had applied for a caste certificate for her son on the basis of her own caste certificate, the petitioner had told the high court.
On Tuesday, the HC allowed the plea and said that the boy's caste certificate must be issued based on the petitioner's caste certificate and all relevant scrutiny and procedures must be followed in accordance with the Rules of the state caste scrutiny committee.
"For the reasons separately recorded, the petition is allowed. Respondent No.1 (district collector) is directed to issue caste certificate to the minor son of the Petitioner as belonging to "Hindu Mahyavanshi" within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the order," the HC said.
"We further direct that the said certificate which will be issued by Respondent No.1 shall be subject to its being validated in accordance with law by the Scrutiny Committee from the date of receipt of the order," it said.