Caste Certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ST and OBC Certificate)

Caste Certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the Revenue Department document that records a person's Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class status for the Union Territory. The concerned Tehsildar issues it, and the Andaman and Nicobar Administration delivers the service electronically through its e-District portal.

The Islands are an unusual case among Indian jurisdictions, and the difference is worth understanding before you apply. The UT's Scheduled Tribe list is very short and covers only the indigenous island communities, the Andamanese, the Onges, the Jarawas, the Sentinelese, the Shompens and the Nicobarese. Almost all routine caste-certificate volume in Port Blair is therefore OBC work, and the OBC certificate for the Islands is built around the Islander Card and the family's settled standing in the territory.

Which department issues the caste certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands?

The Revenue Department of the Andaman and Nicobar Administration issues it, and the signing officer is the Tehsildar with jurisdiction over the applicant's residence. South Andaman district lists the concerned Tehsildar offices as Port Blair, Ferrargunj and Little Andaman. Nicobar district works through the Tehsildars at Car Nicobar, Nancowry and Great Nicobar. North and Middle Andaman district runs the same certificate services through its own tehsil offices.

Electronic delivery runs on the e-District platform at edistrict.andamannicobar.gov.in. The Administration describes the project as aiming at "electronic delivery of identified high volume citizen centric services", with a plan to develop 78 citizen-specific services across departments. Applications reach that portal "through e-forms via CSC / e-corner / internet", which is the district pages' own phrasing: meaning you can file from a Common Service Centre, from an e-corner kiosk, or from your own internet connection.

Who can and cannot apply for a caste certificate in the Islands?

You can apply if you reside in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and belong to a community notified for the UT, a Scheduled Tribe of the Islands, or an Other Backward Class on the UT's OBC list. The Administration's stated conditions for the caste route are that the applicant is an Indian citizen, resides in the territory, and can substantiate the family's caste standing.

Caste here descends through the father, which shapes the whole document list. South Andaman asks not only for your Islander Card and local residence proof but for your parents' as well, and for the parents' OBC status documentation or Record of Rights. A file with the applicant's papers alone is incomplete on its face.

You cannot apply for an Andaman ST certificate as a mainland settler family, however long you have lived in the Islands, because the UT's ST notification covers the indigenous island communities and no others. A family whose tribe is notified in Jharkhand or Odisha keeps that state's tribal status; the Andaman Tehsildar has no power to certify it as an Andaman Scheduled Tribe. You also cannot apply without an Islander Card or equivalent local residence proof, since UT residence is the precondition for a UT-issued certificate.

What documents does the Andaman and Nicobar caste certificate need?

South Andaman district publishes the working checklist for the OBC certificate, and it runs: photograph and birth certificate; proof of local residence and Islander Card for the applicant and for the parents; ration card or family details; the parents' OBC status or Record of Rights documentation; an affidavit; and income verification. A pay certificate for government employees, an income certificate for those in the private sector.

That last item is the one applicants most often skip. Income verification is what settles the non-creamy-layer question on an OBC certificate, and an OBC certificate without it is of limited use for reservation in central or UT recruitment.

How to apply for a caste certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

1. Decide which certificate you need; Scheduled Tribe if you belong to one of the notified indigenous communities of the Islands, Other Backward Class otherwise — and identify your Tehsildar: Port Blair, Ferrargunj or Little Andaman in South Andaman, Car Nicobar, Nancowry or Great Nicobar in Nicobar district.
2. Assemble the papers: photograph, birth certificate, Islander Card and local residence proof for yourself and both parents, ration card or family details, the parents' OBC status or Record of Rights, the affidavit, and the pay or income certificate.
3. Open the e-District portal at edistrict.andamannicobar.gov.in and register, or walk into a Common Service Centre or e-corner and ask the operator to file the e-form for you. The Administration's own apply-for-services page on andaman.gov.in points to the same route.
4. Fill the caste or OBC certificate e-form, entering your community and sub-group exactly as it appears on the UT's notified list and on your father's documents, and upload the scanned attachments.
5. Submit and record the application reference number from the acknowledgement. This number is the only way to trace the file afterwards.
6. Track the application online, the Administration states that applicants can check status online and receive email and SMS alerts, and collect or download the certificate once the Tehsildar has signed it.

How to apply offline at the Tehsildar office

1. Visit the Tehsildar office having jurisdiction over your residence and ask for the caste or OBC certificate application form. Where the office has no printed form available, the application may be written out on plain A4 paper.
2. Complete the form with your name, father's name, permanent island address, and the community claimed, and attach the full document set including both parents' Islander Cards.
3. Submit the application with attachments at the Tehsildar counter and take the receipt bearing the reference number.
4. Attend any verification the Tehsildar's staff call you for. Island files are frequently checked against the local revenue records and the family's Record of Rights.
5. Collect the signed certificate from the same office, or download it from the e-District portal if the office has issued it digitally.

Is there a fee for the caste certificate in the Islands?

The Andaman and Nicobar district service pages for the OBC certificate do not publish a fee or a processing timeline, so this guide will not quote one. Ask at the Tehsildar counter or on the e-District help desk what the government charge is, and insist on a receipt for anything you pay.

What is certain is that no private agent, tout or "documentation consultant" is authorised to charge you for filing, following up or collecting this certificate. The Common Service Centre route exists precisely so that an applicant without a computer can file at a fixed, published service charge rather than at whatever a middleman quotes. Pay the CSC's listed charge and nothing more.

How do I check status and whom do I complain to?

Status is tracked on the e-District portal with the reference number from your acknowledgement slip, and the Administration provides email and SMS alerts on the same application.

For a stuck file, the e-District help desk is reachable on 03192-259027 and 03192-259028, run from the office of the Secretary (General Administration), Andaman and Nicobar Administration, Port Blair. The escalation ladder from there is the Tehsildar who holds the file, then the Deputy Commissioner of South Andaman, Nicobar or North and Middle Andaman as applicable. A grievance can also be filed on the central CPGRAMS portal at pgportal.gov.in with the reference number attached.

Why do Island caste certificate applications get rejected?

Three patterns account for most returns. The first is a missing parental document, the applicant's own Islander Card is attached but the father's is not, or the parents' Record of Rights is left out. The second is a community name written differently from the notified list; the Islands' OBC and ST lists use specific spellings, and a variant sends the file back. The third is an ST claim by a settler family, which cannot succeed because the UT's ST notification covers only the indigenous island communities.

Beyond those, an OBC file with no pay certificate or income certificate will be issued, if at all, without the non-creamy-layer endorsement, which is usually the very thing the applicant needed it for. Attach the income proof at the outset rather than making a second trip to the Tehsildar.