Bombay High Court relief for student who changed surname

Granting interim relief to a medical graduate, the Bombay high court recently held that if a student has a valid caste certificate and had changed his surname, then it would not imply a change in his caste. The court has asked the authorities concerned to re-consider his application to get admission in a post-graduate course in the Scheduled Tribe category.

Shantanu Hari Bhardwaj had approached the vacation bench of the Bombay high court contending that he has a validity certificate to prove that he belonged to the schedule tribe category; however his claim to a post graduate seat in the reserved category is not being considered on the ground that Bhardwaj has changed his surname.

Bhardwaj through advocate P.A. Pol argued before the division bench of Justice Bhushan R. Gavai and Justice Dr Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi that changing a surname does not change the caste of a person.

It was also pointed out to the court that change in his surname was duly notified in the Government Gazette.

The petitioner informed the court that after completion of his MBBS degree, he had sought admission to the post graduate course under the reserved quota for ST community. However, the respondents denied him admission arbitrarily and illegally.

The petitioner submitted that his caste and sub-caste is Hindu-Tokre Koli, which falls under the category of Scheduled Tribes as per the Schedule annexed to Constitution of India. It was contended that his original surname is ‘Sapkale’.

However, he and his brother have changed their surname from Sapkale to ‘Bhardwaj’ from the year 1999 by effect of an official publication in Maharashtra Government Gazette, dated May 20, 1999.

The petitioner submitted that after the said official change in his surname as ‘Bhardwaj’, he had applied to the education officer for changing his surname from Sapkale to ‘Bhardwaj’ by an application dated August 29, 1999. The education officer by his order dated January 20, 2000, changed his surname from Sapkale to Bhardwaj in all the school records.

After hearing arguments, the the bench granted ad-interim relief to the petitioner and asked the respondents to consider Bhardwaj’s claim if he possessed a validity certificate and the government notification notifying the change in his surname.

The bench has further asked the government pleader to communicate the order passed by the high court to the college authorities concerned.