The Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response to a petition challenging the use of “derogatory” caste names in official certificates. The plea argues that these terms, deemed offensive under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, continue to appear in documents despite being considered discriminatory. The petition emphasizes that their usage perpetuates stigma and violates the principles of equality and dignity.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court requested the Centre’s response to a petition seeking the removal of terms such as “Chura,” “Chamar,” “Bhangi,” and “Kanjar” from caste certificates issued by states to individuals in the Scheduled Castes (SC) category.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan issued the notice in response to a petition filed by the Akhil Bharatiya Gihara Samaj Parishad, which argued that the use of these “derogatory” terms in caste certificates is offensive, particularly since such usage is considered a crime under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and has a “dehumanizing” impact on community members.
The petition, submitted by advocate Harish Pandey, stated,
“It is unacceptable for a term intended to humiliate a community to be deemed a crime on one hand, while simultaneously being employed by the state in caste certificates as proof of a person’s sub-caste.”
In examining this issue, the Court will need to consider amending the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950, which currently lists Chura, Chamar, Bhangi, and Kanjar as sub-castes. The petitioners proposed that these terms be replaced with “Jatav” or “Balmiki” in the 1950 order.
Members of the Gihara community, who filed the petition, asserted that they have been unfairly categorized alongside Kanjar, which they view as a derogatory label.
The petitioners argue that derogatory terms used to describe SC sub-castes are prevalent in several states, including Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Mizoram, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, as well as in Delhi and the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Similar requests to either remove or replace the terms “Chura” and “Kanjar” from caste certificates have been raised in the Delhi High Court in previous years. In separate rulings in 2011 and 2022, the High Court permitted these petitions to be forwarded as representations to the Centre and the Delhi government.
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However, the petition claims that no action has been taken on these representations.
Citing international precedents, the petition notes that terms like “Niger” and “Negro,” deemed humiliating and disrespectful to the African American community, have been completely eliminated from the American legal and educational systems.
The petition emphasizes,
“Young people must use these certificates when applying for college admissions or jobs… the use of these terms anywhere will tarnish the right to dignity as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”
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