New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that anthropological, ethnic and other traits of a person should be considered along with other documentary evidence to determine a claimant's status as a member of the Scheduled Tribe for enjoying the benefits in education and employment.
A bench of Justice D K Jain and Justice A K Ganguly said pre-independence documents should be given preference over post-independence documents as they have more probative value in determining the tribal status of a person.
The court allowed the appeal of Anand, a probationary field officer of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.
He had challenged the state government's decision to terminate his services on the ground that his tribal status was not valid, the apex court laid down certain parameters for states to observe while deciding the ST status of a person.
Anand was appointed to the post on March 16, 1998.
The state government, however, issued him a notice for terminating his service on the ground that his certificate was not valid as the Vigilance Cell found that he was a member of Halbi sub-caste of the Koshti caste but does not belong to the original Halbi Scheduled Tribe.
Interpreting the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes rules, and Constitutional rights enjoyed by tribals, the apex court said an enquiry into the kinship and affinity of an applicant to STs is not only relevant but germane to the determination of social status of a person.
"The genuineness of a caste claim has to be considered not only on a thorough examination of the documents submitted in support of the claim but also on the affinity test which would include the anthropological and ethnological traits etc of the applicant.
"However, it is neither feasible nor desirable to lay down an absolute rule which could be applied mechanically to examine a caste claim," Justice Jain said writing the judgement.
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