`TN dalit students can't claim quota benefit in Pondy'
Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Paving the way for resumption of counselling process for admission to MBBS courses in Puducherry, the Madras high court has ruled that scheduled caste candidates who have migrated from other states cannot demand right of reservation even if they have lived in the Union territory for five years.
Justice M M Sundresh, dismissing a batch of nearly 25 petitions filed by dalit students who migrated from Tamil Nadu and had been living in Puducherry for at least five years, said: “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 , he cannot be given the (resident) status and cannot be allowed to be brought under the umbrella of the Presidential Order.“
Similarly , such a person does not lose the right to avail reservation in the state in which he was a permanent resident and from where he had migrated, the judge said.
The Pondicherry Scheduled Caste People's Welfare Association and some students had filed the petitions seeking MBBS admission for SC students who had mi grated from other states to the Union territory and have been residing there for more than five years.
Their counsel R Vaigai argued that treating similarly placed people as `residents', even government posts had been offered under the reserved category . Additional solicitor general of India G Rajagopalan, however, argued that petitioners cannot seek the benefit of reservation in states where they have migrated to.
Justice Sundresh said: “A mere issuance of certificate of resident to a migrant would not give a right to be treated under the reservation category for the purpose of education.“ He said, “Such a certificate has been given to every other person who comes to the Union territory of Puducherry and resides there for five years. It is given merely based upon the period of stay , and therefore, nothing to do with the status.“ The purpose of reservation is to overcome backwardness and other disadvantages of a caste in a particular state, and thus it does not have any relevancy to the period of stay , he said.
