India, Sept. 20 -- The Madras High Court recently said that physical attributes including fair skin, tall height and curly hair, without any evaluation conducted by an anthropologist, could not be used to determine someone's religion or community.

The court made the observation while setting aside an order of the District Level Vigilance Committee - which had held that a community certificate held by a man was not genuine. The committee had decided that the man did not belong to the Adi Dravidar community, which is a Scheduled Caste community, Live Law reported.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by M Ravikumar, who had challenged the order deeming his certificate invalid. Ravikumar had, in his petition, stated that his father belonged...