The Bombay High Court observed that it will examine the law by which the Muslim community does not mention caste. The court was hearing a plea seeking to quash an order passed by the caste scrutiny panel of Sangli who refused to issue a caste validity certificate of a Muslim Naikwadi inder Vimukt Jati category.
A bench of Justices SB Shukre and GA Sanap was hearing the plea filed by Zuveria Shaikh, a resident of Sangli’s Miraj Taluka.
Shaikh had appeared for CET for admission and secured admission for a diploma course in Electrical Engineering as a Vimukt Jati student based on the caste certificate of 2013. The college then sent Shaikh’s caste claim to the District Caste Scrutiny Committee in October 2021, who rejected the claim.
The plea stated that the caste committee was expecting documentary evidence which mentioned that the petitioner is a Muslim-Naikwadi. The caste certificate was important to consider Shaikh’s admission under Vimukt Jati category for direct admission to the 2nd year of engineering course.
The petition stated that the status of Vimukt Jati is given to some persons in the Muslim community based upon their traditional business. Since the caste system does not exist in the religion, the Caste Scrutiny Committee should have taken it into consideration.
“It is one of the contentions of the petitioner that just because in some relevant documents, the caste of petitioner’s relatives has not been mentioned, Caste Scrutiny Committee ought not to have held such absence of caste in the relevant documents, as going against the Petitioner for the reason that in many of the Judgments delivered by the Division Bench of this Court, a consistent view has been taken that in Muslim community, there is no practise of mentioning caste,” noted the court in one of its order.
The bench said, “We would like to examine the law on this point and therefore, we request both sides to assist the Court on the question.”
It was claimed that Shaikh’s school leaving certificate did not mention caste as Muslim Naikwadi, as it was not a practice in the Muslim community to mention sub-caste.
The petition explains that the sub-castes in Islam are classified into various classes on the basis of the profession/business. The petitioner’s caste ‘Muslim Naikwadi’ is also explained as the original business of ‘Muslim Naikwadi’ i.e. guarding the Forts. In view of this, the same is not mentioned in the school leaving certificate or any other documentary evidence of the petitioner.
Shaikh sought orders for the caste scrutiny committee to issue a caste validity certificate.
Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bombay-high-court-muslim-community-caste-1935914-2022-04-11
