Wednesday, December 21 2005 14:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that a woman from an upper caste Hindu family cannot take benefit of contesting elections from a reserved constituency on the grounds of her marriage to a man belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.

Setting aside a Delhi High Court verdict in this regard, a Bench comprising Justice S B Sinha and Justice P K Balasubramaniyan said acceptance of the upper caste woman in the SC and ST family cannot be a criteria for her to claim benefit to contest polls from the reserved seats.

"It is, therefore, beyond doubt or dispute that a person who is a high caste Hindu and not subjected to any social or educational backwardness in his life, by reason of marriage alone cannot also facto become a member of SC or ST," the Bench said.

Meera Kanwaria, a defeated candidate in the MCD Councillor election from Subhash Nagar in the city had challenged the High Court judgement upholding the election of an upper caste woman Sunita from the reserved seat.

Sunita, an upper caste woman had contested from reserved constituency on the ground that she was married to a SC and as such she was entitled for benefit by reason of her marriage.

Kanwari had contended that her rival cannot contest the election from reserved seat as she was not SC by birth.

Sunita had also filed a wrong affidavit to contest the election from the reserved seat by claiming that she was SC by birth.