Migrant SCs, STs not entitled to benefits of reservation in state: HC

Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) migrants are not entitled to the benefits of reservation in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court has ruled.

Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) migrants are not entitled to the benefits of reservation in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court has ruled.

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A full bench of the HC has held that only SCs and STs residing in the state since March 3, 1950, will be entitled to the benefits of reservation.

The HC has excluded those SCs and STs who resided in erstwhile Bombay Presidency, which covered a much bigger area than that of present Maharashtra, from the list of beneficiaries.

The full bench was dealing with a reference arising out of two conflicting views taken by two different benches of the HC on the issue — whether migrant SCs and STs were entitled to benefits of reservation in the state.

“Such person (migrant SCs, STs) would continue to get the benefit in the state of his origin,” observed the bench comprising Justice F.I. Rebello, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice J.H. Bhatia.

“It was possible that merely because of migration, the disadvantages which a person belonging to a backward class suffers from may not disappear even in the state of migration,” observed the judges.

“As long as Parliament or the State Legislature does not make any law, the migrants will not be entitled to the benefits of reservation in the state of migration,” they added. “They will continue to enjoy the benefits in their home state.”

The bench noted that the fathers of our Constitution had limited the benefits of reservation and were of the opinion that benefits of reservation must go to those socially and economically disadvantaged in the geographical area of that state.