The Madras High Court on Tuesday, August 16, directed the authorities concerned to issue a ‘no caste, no religion’ certificate to a student studying in a school in Ambattur, Chennai. Justice Abdul Quddhose gave a ruling to this effect while passing orders on a writ petition on behalf of a child named J Yuvan Manoj on Tuesday. This order follows a recommendation from the local tahsildar.
In his writ petition, Jagadeesan, father of the boy Yuvan Manoj, submitted that he “belongs to the Scheduled Caste community and married a higher caste woman despite protests from both families.” The couple had a son in April 2019, and when Jagadeesan admitted his son to a school in Ambattur, the authorities there insisted him to fill up a column relating to caste and religion, he said. He refused and the child was denied admission, the petition said.
When the matter came up recently, the local tahsildar by an order dated August 16 submitted that he does not have any objection in issuing a certificate declaring that the petitioner (Jagadeesan) is entitled to get a certificate for ‘no caste, no community’ tag. Taking on record this submission, Justice Quddhose directed the authorities concerned to issue the certificate, as prayed for by the petitioner.
According to The New Indian Express, the petitioner wanted to receive the certificate as per two government orders issued by the state government as he wanted to raise his son in a casteless and religion free society. The two government orders issued in the year 2000 instruct schools to not compel parents to declare their caste or community.
In May 2022, another couple from Coimbatore got a ‘no caste, no religion’ certificate for their then three-year-old daughter. Naresh Karthik, who runs a small design firm in the city, said he was surprised that every school he approached for his daughter Vilma’s admission put the application on hold because the caste and religion column was left blank. He then applied for and received a certificate issued by the Coimbatore North Tashildar declaring that “baby GN Vilma does not belong to any caste or religion.”