CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has said that physical features like fair skin, tall stature, good physique and curly hair cannot be used to determine an individual’s caste or religion.
Setting aside an order of the district-level vigilance committee of Tiruvannamalai, which concluded that the petitioner, M Ravikumar, was not an SC but an SC Christian, Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy said that while the question whether the petitioner follows Hindu faith or Christianity will be legally relevant, the physical appearance or his ability to speak Tamil and English will not have any bearing on his communal status.
The petitioner, who retired as assistant commissioner of Customs on May 30, 2026, filed the petition seeking to set aside the district vigilance committee’s May 4, 2026 order.
His father converted to Christianity in 1960, and in 1983, he and his father re-converted to Hinduism and were following the Hindu rites and customs. Using the SC certificate, he had joined service with the Customs department. Just a few weeks before his retirement in May this year, the vigilance committee passed the orders concluding that he did not belong to SC.
The reasons cited for arriving at such conclusions were brushed aside by the judge, in a recent order.
The judge held that the committee’s findings are not clear and categorical on the re-conversion and the community members’ acceptance of the petitioner back into their grove.
While the fact that the petitioner’s father is buried in a Christian burial ground, may be relevant, yet the subsequent finding that his daughter was mentioned as a Christian in the ration card in 1994 is not supported by any evidence, Justice Chakravarthy said, and pointed out that the petitioner’s claim was that he was married on September 15, 1994 and his daughter was born on November 10, 1998.
“Therefore, the said finding appears to be unsustainable,” he said, and noted that the committee had not supported through concrete reasons or facts its findings on the community people’s acceptance of the petitioner after re-conversion.
He said some of the reasons in the impugned order are not supported by the evaluation of an anthropologist.
The judge ordered the vigilance committee to give an opportunity of personal hearing to the respondent who has to appear before it within four weeks and submit the documents to strengthen his case.
