Prayagraj, Feb. 13 -- Caste determined by birth remains unchanged despite conversion or intercaste marriage, the Allahabad high court has observed as it upheld a lower court's summons to a group of people under SC/ST Act crime. Justice Anil Kumar made the observation in an order dated February 10 while dismissing a criminal appeal filed by one Dinesh and eight others who challenged an order passed by a special judge in Aligarh, summoning them to face trial for offences under sections of Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The order came on a woman's criminal complaint against the appellants, alleging she was assaulted and abused and that they used casteist slurs against her during the altercation. She also alleged that three people, including herself, were injured in the incident. The appellants moved the high court against the special court's order, arguing that though the informant originally belonged to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) community by birth and is originally a resident of West Bengal, she lost her caste status after she married a man belonging to the Jat community. They contended that a woman, after marrying a person of another caste, loses her original caste which she held since birth and thereafter belongs to the caste of her husband. Therefore, summoning the appellants for offences under the SC/ST Act is unsustainable, they argued....