Marital status and the winding road to OBC certification

Apex court weighs in

- Abraham Thomas

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court agreed to examine whether children of single mothers belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are entitled to community certificates that would enable them to access reservation benefits.

The matter, which has important ramifications for gender justice and equitable access to affirmative action, has the support of the Union government, albeit with caveats.

The Centre, in its June 9 response to a petition filed before the apex court, said it was not opposed to extending OBC certificates to children of single mothers.

However, it highlighted that community certification remains a state subject under India's constitutional scheme. As such, the Centre pointed to the absence of uniformity in issuance of such certificates across different states, making it necessary for the Supreme Court to lay down broad guidelines if such entitlement is to be made nationally applicable.

The petition, filed in public interest by Santosh Kumari, a retired schoolteacher from Delhi, challenged the prevailing norm in the Capital where OBC certificates are issued only based on paternal lineage.

This criterion, the petition argued, disproportionately disadvantages children raised solely by OBC mothers, particularly those who are separated, divorced, or abandoned.

The Centre underscored that, unlike Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), for whom the Supreme Court in 2012 ruled that caste is not exclusively inherited from the father, no equivalent judicial precedent exists for children of OBC single mothers. Moreover, while the SC/ST categories are not subject to economic criteria, OBC reservations are governed by the concept of the “creamy layer” -- a mechanism that excludes economically advanced individuals from reservation benefits. Still, the Centre's willingness to consider a shift represents a policy turn.