A District Vigilance Committee’s reliance on the physical appearance of a person to determine his Scheduled Caste status, and the Madras High Court’s rejection of this obviously untenable approach, is a classic instance of avoidable litigation clogging the dockets of courts. The case involves a government official, who, at the time of retirement, found his SC certificate under scrutiny by a District Vigilance Committee (DVC), which concluded that the man’s tall height, fair complexion, curly hair, and proficiency in English and Tamil made his caste claim improbable. The adverse decision by the panel led to a legal challenge, and the High Court faulted it for relying on non-evidentiary aspects to make a determination. There is........

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