Persons With Inter-Religious Marriage Also Entitled To Reservation Provided For Inter-Caste Marriages: Kerala High Court
The Petition before the High Court was filed by a Christian woman who is married to a Hindu, seeking appointment under the inter-caste marriage reservation category.
Justice Harisankar V. Menon, Kerala High Court
While directing the regularisation of a woman employee, the Kerala High Court has held that an inter-religious marriage would get the benefit of inter-caste marriage reservation.
The Petition was filed by a Christian woman who is married to a Hindu seeking appointment under the inter-caste marriage reservation category. The appointment was under the category "“മിശ്ര വിവാഹിത” (Mishra Vivahita) or "mixed marriage".
The Single Bench of Justice Harisankar V. Menon held, “However, in my opinion, as already noticed, since the petitioner’s appointment is under the category of “മിശ്ര വിവാഹിത”, the benefits thereunder require to be extended on the basis of Exts.P5 as well as P8 since those certificates certify that the petitioner belongs to the Christian religion and her husband belongs to the Hindu religion. In the opinion of this Court, an inter-religion marriage also requires to be taken note of while considering the entitlement pursuant to the benefits considered and extended pursuant to Ext.P4 order.”
Advocate Dajish John represented the Petitioner while Government Pleader Mintu Cherian represented the Respondent.
Factual Background
The petitioner sought appointment to the post of farm employee under the Principal Agricultural Officer. Pursuant to a certificate, the petitioner was appointed to the afore post under the inter-caste marriage reservation category. The petitioner was also appointed on the basis of that certificate. However, the petitioner was required to produce documents in support of the claim of reservation within the prescribed period. The petitioner relied upon a certificate ( Ext.P5) issued by the Tahsildar, Vaikom, which certified that the petitioner is married to Nishu Soman, and the marriage is an “inter-caste marriage”.
Though the petitioner relied on this certificate, the Senior Agricultural Officer insisted on producing a latest certificate, based on which an application was presented before the Tahsildar seeking issuance of “inter-caste marriage certificate”. According to the Tahsildar, the petitioner and her husband belonged to two different religions; the same could not be considered to be an “inter-caste marriage”. However, later, the Tahsildar issued a certificate (Ext.P8) certifying that the petitioner’s husband belongs to the Hindu religion – under Pulaya category and the petitioner belongs to the Christian religion under Roman Catholic category. The petitioner approached the High Court after the certificate was not accepted by the Senior Agricultural Officer.
Reasoning
The Bench was of the view that since the petitioner’s appointment was under the reservation category, the benefits thereunder were required to be extended on the basis of Exts.P5 as well as P8 (certificate terming the marriage as inter-caste) since those certificates certified that the petitioner belongs to the Christian religion and her husband belongs to the Hindu religion.
The Bench held that an inter-religion marriage also requires to be taken note of while considering the entitlement pursuant to the benefits extended to her under the reserved category.
The Bench thus asked the Senior Agricultural Officer to regularise the appointment of the petitioner on the basis of the aforementioned certificate. “Needless to say that the consequential benefits require to be extended to the petitioner forthwith”, it added.
Cause Title: Jisha Thomas v. State Of Kerala (Neutral Citation: 2026:KER:70453)