TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa Thursday declared as invalid an ‘other backward class (OBC) certificate’ issued to a zilla panchayat member, observing that a person belonging to the Gowli community of Karnataka and married to a Dhangar Goan is not entitled for this caste certificate.
The order was passed in view of Suggubai B alias Rashmi Rajan Lambor’s ZP member claim on a seat reserved for other backward classes in March 2010. She had challenged the State Caste Scrutiny Committee’s order dated October 2012 that had declared invalid the OBC certificate issued by the deputy collector of Quepem on February 4, 2010.
The Bench of Justices A P Lavande and U V Bhakre remarked that a person is entitled to obtain OBC social status only by birth and not marriage.
“The petitioner does not claim benefit of reservation on the ground of reorganization of States and removal of area restrictions. She is claiming equivalence between the Gowli community of Karnataka and Dhangar community of Goa,” the Bench observed.
“…But, admittedly, the petitioner (Lambor) is not of the ‘same caste’ by birth and by marriage. In view of the judgments (cited) supra, irrespective of the fact whether the migration of the petitioner in Goa is voluntary or involuntary, the petitioner cannot claim the benefit of reservation on account of such migration,” it said.
The Bench further said that persons from Gowli community in Goa are not declared as other backward classes, and that whether they should be notified as OBC is a matter of debate.
“Similarly, it is not known whether there are persons of Dhangar community in Karnataka, though such possibilities cannot be ruled out,” the order says granting continuing interim relief for four weeks.
The petitioner through her legal representative A V Pavithran had sought from the High Court to continue interim relief, granted earlier, for six weeks to approach the Supreme Court.
