Punjab and Haryana HC notice to Mohammad Sadiq over plea on his SC status

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Congress candidate from Faridkot, Mohammad Sadiq, and the returning officer of Faridkot (reserved) parliamentary constituency over a plea seeking directions not to accept his candidature.


In his plea, Moga resident Kamaljit Singh has said that any individual who was born a Muslim could not be deemed as a member of any scheduled caste (SC). Faridkot is a parliamentary seat reserved for members of the SC community. Sadiq, born Muslim in 1939, had declared vide a newspaper ad in 2006-07 that he had become a Sikh and belonged to the Doom Marassi caste, according to the petition.

The divisional bench comprising Chief Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Arun Palli issued notices while hearing the petition filed by Kamaljit Singh, a resident of Moga in Punjab. The matter has been fixed for September 12 for further hearing. “An individual not belonging to a religion and not practising caste system cannot convert to a religion practising caste system and take upon himself any particular caste that he would like to as that would be a fraud on the Constitution as has been held by the Supreme Court in ‘Lily Thomas and others versus Union of India and others’,” the petitioner argued.

According to the petitioner, the government cannot issue him caste certificate merely on the basis of an affidavit furnished by him claiming to be member of SC community.

The petitioner has sought directions for cancellation of the SC certificate dated June 25, 2006, or any other such caste certificate issued to Sadiq by the Punjab government for being in contradiction to Article 341 of the Constitution of India, The Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order 1950, and instructions issued by the Punjab government itself.