SC/ST status is state-specific, cannot be carried across states: Orissa HC

The high court said a person belonging to a caste notified as an SC in one state cannot automatically claim the same status, or be treated as an ST, in another state

Classifications in Presidential notifications are state-specific and based on the socio-economic conditions of communities in the respective states, and a person migrating to another state does not carry the Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) status enjoyed in the state of origin, the Orissa High Court has said.

Odisha Regulation 2 of 1956 imposes restrictions on certain transfers of land belonging to Scheduled Tribes. (Representative file photo)

Quashing a letter issued by the district registrar-cum-additional district magistrate (ADM) of Mayurbhanj over land sale deed executed by a Jharkhand man, the HC said a person belonging to a caste notified as an SC in one state cannot automatically claim the same status, or be treated as an ST, in another state.

“The Presidential notification containing the lists of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities is prepared looking at the socio- economic development of the particular caste/tribe vis-à- vis the State. The same socio-economic conditions may not exist in another State,” HC judge Sashikanta Mishra ruled while quashing a letter issued by the district registrar-cum-additional district magistrate (ADM) of Mayurbhanj, which had asked petitioner Binoy Krishna Das, to obtain prior permission from the competent authority to sell his land in the district.

Das, a resident of Jharkhand but staying in Baripada town of Mayurbhanj district for his trading business, sold 0.14 acres of his land in the district to a person from the SC community for ₹10 lakh. A sale deed executed before the sub-registrar, Kuliana in March this year was not accepted forcing him to approach the district registrar-cum-ADM. The district registrar in his letter to Das on April 23 said that Das was Bhuiya, classified as an ST in Odisha and prior permission was required under Regulation 2 of 1956 as the buyer did not belong to a Scheduled Tribe..

Odisha Regulation 2 of 1956 imposes restrictions on certain transfers of land belonging to Scheduled Tribes. Section 22 of the Odisha Land Reforms Act also deals with restrictions on transfers of land by STs to non-tribal people.

Challenging the decision in the high court, Das argued that his SC status in Jharkhand could not be converted into ST status in Odisha and that the restrictions governing the transfer of tribal land were therefore inapplicable to him.

Upholding his contention, Justice Mishra observed that caste and tribe classifications in Presidential notifications were specific to individual states and reflected the socio-economic conditions of communities in the respective states.

A person migrating from one state to another does not carry the SC or ST status recognised in the state of origin, the judge said. The court further observed that since Bhuiya was not notified as an SC in Odisha, Das could not claim SC status in the state. At the same time, he could not automatically be treated as an ST merely because the caste was included in Odisha’s list of Scheduled Tribes.

“Since the petitioner cannot claim to be Scheduled Caste in the State of Odisha for want of notifying the caste ‘Bhuiya’ as such, by the same analogy, he cannot be automatically included in the list of Scheduled Tribes either. The entry in the Presidential notification is specific to Odisha and does not extend to a person belonging to the ‘Bhuiya’ caste in the State of Jharkhand, where it is notified as a Scheduled Caste. The District Registrar-cum-ADM has lost sight of this fundamental aspect by asking for permission under Regulation 2 of 1956. If the petitioner cannot be treated as a Scheduled Tribe in the State of Odisha, how can the provisions of Regulation 2 of 1956 apply,” the HC asked, quashing the ADM’s April 23 letter and directed the sub-registrar-cum-tehsildar, Kuliana, to register the sale deed.