LONDON: The Indian caste system seems to have cost a British Indian couple their jobs and prospects. Vijay Begraj, 32, and his wife Amardeep, 33, claim that their bosses discriminated against them because they were from different castes.

A Birmingham employment tribunal was told on Tuesday that Amardeep's career had suffered at the hands of Coventry-based solicitors Heer Manak ever since she married Begraj. Her husband was sacked after seven years of service in 2010 and his wife resigned in January this year. Vijay, who was a law firm practice manager, is a Dalit, while his wife, a solicitor, is a Jat. He is a Hindu and she a Sikh. In India's complex caste system, Dalits are considered to be low- caste Hindus. The couple claim that even at their wedding their employers made barbed comments. One colleague raised a toast to "Jat girls going down the drain" said Amardeep.