Supreme Court of India

Sobha Hymavathi Devi v. Setti Gangadhara Swamy and Ors.

Neutral citation

Reported as [2005] 1 S.C.R. 848

Bench R.C. Lahoti, G.P. Mathur and P.K. Balasubramanyan JJ.

Decided 28 January 2005

INSC stands for INDIAN SUPREME COURT. A neutral citation scheme assigned by the Court itself, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter. INSC is the neutral citation scheme assigned by the Supreme Court, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter.

4 Supreme Court benches have cited this judgment.

What the Court ordered

We are of the view that whether it be a reservation under Articles 15(4) or 16(4) or 330 and 332, the said reservation would benefit only those who belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe and not those who claim to acquire the status by marriage, like the appellant in this case.

Judgment, page 13

From the headnote

Constitution of India, 1950 -Article 332 - Constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes-Election of appellant set aside by High Court on the ground that she belonged to a forward caste-Appellant was born of a forward caste father and Scheduled Tribe mother-Claim of appellant that her parents were not formally married, and she being illegitimate, belonged to caste of her mother and further that she was brought up as a member of Scheduled Tribe not substantiated-Claim of acquired membership in community of husband, who belonged to Scheduled Tribe, also not acceptable, since reservation would

Authorities it was built on

1952 Thakur Gokalchand v. Parvin Kumari cited by 18
1996 Ranganath Parmeswar Pandjtrao Mali and Anr. v. Eknath Gajanan Kulkarni and Anr. cited by 5

Where later benches applied it

2010 Bharatha Matha & Anr. v. R. Vijaya Renganathan & Ors. relied on
2025 A. Raja v. D. Kumar referred to
2020 The State of Punjab & Ors. v. Davinder Singh & Ors. referred to
2012 Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika v. State of Gujarat & Others referred to

Of those, 1 relied on · 3 referred to

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