Supreme Court Allows SC Certificate Based on Mother’s Caste in ‘Non-Sweeping’ Ruling

Key Points

The Supreme Court, on Monday, 8 December 2025, allowed a minor girl from Puducherry to receive a Scheduled Caste (SC) certificate based on her mother’s caste, Adi Dravida, even though her father does not belong to an SC community.

The bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi declined to interfere with a Madras High Court order that had already directed the issuance of the certificate, saying the child’s education and welfare could not be held hostage to rigid interpretations of caste inheritance. “With changing times, why can’t a caste certificate be issued based on the mother’s caste?” the bench observed.

The child’s mother, an Adi Dravida woman, had sought SC certificates for all three of her children. She argued that her parents and grandparents belonged to the same community, and that her husband lived with her at her parental home after marriage.

Presidential notifications from 1964 and 2002, along with Home Ministry guidelines, generally tie a child’s caste to the father’s caste and domicile. The Supreme Court acknowledged these, but said the immediate concern was the child’s right to continue education.

The bench clarified that the broader constitutional question of whether caste can systematically be inherited from the mother remains undecided. the judgement is non-sweeping, meaning it cannot act as a precedent for future cases which will need to be examined on an individual basis.

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The Long Debate on Caste Inheritance

The SC’s approach aligns with a slow-moving but notable shift in past jurisprudence. Historically, in cases like Punit Rai vs Dinesh Chaudhary (2003), the Supreme Court held firmly that caste for reservation purposes follows patrilineal inheritance, as in traditional Hindu law.

But in Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika vs State of Gujarat (2012), the SC softened this stance. It ruled that although the presumption favours the father’s caste, the presumption is not absolute. Children of inter-caste or tribal–non-tribal marriages may claim the mother’s caste if they can prove they were raised within her community and experienced the same social disadvantages. Notably, the burden of proof is placed on the child.

The SC’s latest decision also intersects with another pending case: whether children of single mothers can inherit their mother’s OBC status.

In July 2025, the SC flagged the absence of guidelines after a single OBC mother challenged Delhi’s rules requiring proof of caste from the father’s side. The government pointed again to the 2012 judgment, noting that caste cannot mechanically follow the father when the mother is the primary caregiver.

Several High Court cases reflect the tension between protection against misuse and recognition of genuine disadvantage. The Delhi High Court has denied certificates where children had not faced social or economic discrimination, while the Gauhati High Court in 2024 upheld a woman’s OBC certificate because she had demonstrably grown up experiencing her mother’s community’s hardships.

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The Larger Question of Maternal Caste

While the ruling signifies a shift in the court’s view on caste inheritance law, the larger question of maternal caste remains unaddressed. Several petitions are pending in courts – particularly by single mothers and inter-caste families.

Till now, none of the judgements made on the subject have set a precedent, emphasising the need to view each instance on a case-by-case basis. A clearer national framework may emerge only when the Court delivers a final ruling on the broader constitutional issue. [Rh]

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