Scheduled Caste candidates migrating from other states can't demand right of reservation in Puducherry: Madras HC

The Madras High Court on Thursday ruled that the Scheduled Caste candidates who had migrated from other states cannot demand right of reservation even though they had lived in the union territory of Puducherry for five years.

"Residents, as indicated in the Presidential Order dated March 5,1964, would only mean such residents who were available on that date and not thereafter Merely because a person resides for various reasons in the union territory of Puducherry, cannot be given the status and he cannot be allowed to be brought under the umbrella of the Presidential Order," Justice M.M. Sundresh said He was dismissing a batch of petitions filed by Dalits who had migrated from Tamil Nadu and living in Puduchery for five years.

The petitioners sought inclusion in the Scheduled Caste category enabling to get admission in professional courses in colleges and other courses of higher education.

"Merely because a Scheduled Caste person migrated to Puducherry from another state, resided there for five years and obtained a certificate of residence as well, he cannot be treated as a resident for the purpose of admission in professional courses meant for natives of the union territory," the judge said.

"Similarly, such a person does not lose his right of reservation in the state in which he is a permanent resident and from where he had migrated to Puducherry." Clarifying that the residential certificate cannot be used for the purpose of including such a person in the SC category to get the benefit of reservation in the union territory, the Judge said a certificate of residence given after completion of five years cannot be used to define a resident as mentioned in the Presidential Order.

"A mere issuance of certificate of residence issued to a migrant would not give a vested right to be treated under the reservation category for the purpose of education." "Such a certificate has been given to every other person who comes to the union territory of Puducherry and resides therein for five years. It is given merely based upon the period of stay, and therefore, has nothing to do with the status."

"The purpose of reservation is meant to overcome backwardness and other disadvantages of a caste in a particular caste, and thus it does not have any relevance to the period of stay," the judge said.