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Man loses ‘atheist’ cert a week after getting it

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chandigarh/Chennai:

Less than a week after a 32-year-old man’s year-long battle to renounce his caste and religion ended with
the Haryana government issuing him a “no God, no caste, no religion” certificate, the authorities, in a
U-turn on Saturday, said they had “exceeded their jurisdiction” and would withdraw the document.

Fatehabad resident Ravi Kumar, who now affixes “Atheist” as his surname, was just a child when he had
a moment of clarity. Some boys were beating him up one day and he prayed fervently to God to rescue
him, but the blows kept raining. Those were the first seeds of doubt. Nothing that happened in his poor life
after that strengthened his belief in God, he says.

‘People say India is secular then why can’t an Indian be secular?’

First came the tattoos on his arms that boldly spelled “atheist” and later
Ravi decided to do away with all pretence and get official recognition
as an atheist. In 2018, he filed a civil suit in a Fatehabad court urging it
to order the Haryana education department to change his name to Ravi
Kumar Atheist on his academic documents. The court ruled in his
favour the same year.

Months after winning the legal battle, Ravi approached the Fatehabad district administration and finally
got a “no caste, no religion, no God” certificate on April 29. But his victory was short-lived, with the
Fatehabad administration declaring on Saturday that it was withdrawing the certification. Deputy
commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata told TOI that his subordinates had “misinterpreted the court’s
directions in the case”. Khadgata said, “The court had ordered that Ravi should be permitted to use
‘Atheist’ as his last name in his documents, but the district officials issued him a certificate with additional
remarks, thereby exceeding their jurisdiction. We are withdrawing it.”

Ravi, however, claimed that he had approached the Fatehabad deputy commissioner after the local
tehsildar turned him away. “The deputy commissioner had got my background checked, my documents
verified and ordered the tehsildar to issue me a certificate,” he said.

He is now clutching on to the precious certificate and is ready to wage another legal battle if anybody tries
to declare it null and void. “This is my identity now. I’m ready to fight this to the end. I have followed all
legal procedures and a thorough verification process. Let the administration issue me a notice and I will
reply,” he said.

Ravi said that he had battled discrimination, abuse and threats to reach so far and he will not back down
now. “People have stopped even accepting water from me since I was declared an atheist. Why is it so
hard for an Indian to give up his religion if he wants to?” Ravi Kumar said.

Down south in Tamil Nadu, Sneha, who became the first Indian to get a “no caste, no religion” certificate,
didn’t have it easy either. She also has to constantly face abuse and threats. The 35-year-old lawyer, who
initiated the process to be officially without religion or caste in 2010, says that nothing had prepared her
for the prodding questions or the barrage of criticism that came her way soon after she received the

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certificate from the tehsildar of Tirupattur, T S Sathiyamoorthy, in February 2019. “When I was enrolled in
school, my parents left the sections stating caste and religion blank. There is no mention of caste or
religion in any of my transfer certificates from school. I grew up with these values. For me, getting such a
certificate was just one of the many ways to fight the caste system,” she said.

When Sneha applied to obtain official recognition of her having no caste and religion, she kicked up a
storm in official corridors. “Many feared that such a certificate wouldeven affect the reservation policy
meant for marginalised people if more were inspired by me to follow suit,” she said.

Sneha is now planning to approach a judicial forum to request that a government order be issued to allow
authorities to provide “no caste, no religion” certificates to people applying for it. “Right now, it is
dependent on the discretionary powers of the tehsildar but I want a GO. People say India is secular then
why can’t an Indian be secular?” she says.

Sneha, a 35-year-old lawyer

from Tamil Nadu, was the
first Indian to get a ‘no caste,
no religion’ certificate

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