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1. Where a person belonging to a caste or tribe specified for the purposes of the Constitution to be a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in relation to State A migrates to State B where a caste or tribe with the same nomenclature is specified for the purposes of the Constitution to be a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in relation to that State B, will that person be entitled to claim the privileges and benefits admissible to persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and/or Scheduled Tribes in State B, is the neat question raised in this petition brought under Article 32 of the Constitution by one Shri Devidas Kuberdas Kantharia in his personal capacity as well as in his capacity as the Chairman of Petitioner No. 1 Committee. The grievance sought to be projected in this petition, which has been brought in a representative capacity and by way of a Public Interest Litigation, is that State B denies the benefits and privileges admissible to such persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who have migrated from State A or any other State. Before we set out the specific nature of the grievance it may be advantageous to refer to the provisions in the Constitution which have a bearing on the question at issue.

(8) In Sub-sections (3) and (5) "service qualification" means-

(a) being a member of the armed forces of the Union; or

(b) being a member of a force to which the provisions of the Armed Act, 1950 (46 of 1950), have been made applicable whether with or without modifications; or

(c) being a member of an armed police force of a State, who is served outside that State; or

(d) being a person who is employed under the Government of India, in a post outside India.

In course of time persons belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes who had migrated from one State to another in search of employment or for education purposes and the like, experienced great difficulty in obtaining Caste/Tribe Certificates from the State from which they had migrated. To remove this difficulty experienced by them the earlier instructions contained in the letter of March 22, 1977, and the subsequent letter of March 29, 1982, were modified, in that, the prescribed authority of a State/Union territory was permitted to issue the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Certificate to a person who had migrated from another State on production of a genuine certificate issued to his father by a prescribed authority of the State of the father's origin except where the prescribed authority considered a detailed enquiry necessary through the State of origin before issue of certificate. It was further stated that the certificate will be issued irrespective of whether the Caste/Tribe in question is Scheduled or not in relation to the State/Union territory to which the person has migrated. Of course, this facility did not alter the Scheduled Caste/Tribe status of the person in relation to the one or the other State. The revised form of the certificate was circulated. Further, it was clarified that a Scheduled Caste/Tribe person who has migrated from the State of origin to some other State for the purpose of education, employment, etc., will be deemed to be Scheduled Caste/Tribe of the State of his origin only and will be entitled to derive benefits from that State and not from the State to which he had migrated. By this clarificatory order forwarded to Chief Secretaries of all States/Union Territories, the only facility extended was that the prescribed authority of the State/Union Territory to which a person had migrated was permitted to issue the certificate to the migrant on production of the genuine certificate issued to his father by the prescribed authority of the State of the father's origin provided that the prescribed authority could always enquire into the matter through State of origin if he entertained any doubt. The certificate to be so issued would be in relation to the State/Union Territory from which the concerned person had migrated and not in relation to the State/Union Territory to which he had migrated. Therefore, the migrant would not be entitled to derive benefits in the State to which he had migrated on the strength of such a certificate. This was re-iterated in a subsequent letter dated October 15, 1987 addressed to Smt. Shashi Mishra, Secretary, Social Welfare, etc., in the State of Maharashtra. In paragraph 4 of that letter it was specifically stated:

Further, a Scheduled Caste persons, who has migrated from the State of his origin, which is considered to be his ordinary place of residence after the issue of the First Presidential Order, 1950, can get benefit from the State of his origin and not from the State to which he has migrated.
So stating the proposal regarding reduction in the period of cut off point of 1950 for migration was spurned. It was stated that the proposal could have been taken care of only if the lists of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were made on All India basis which, it was said, was not feasible in view of the provisions of Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution. It will thus, be seen that so far as the Government of India is concerned, since the date of issuance of the communication dated March 22, 1977, it has firmly held the view that a Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe person who migrates from the State of his origin to another State in search of employment or for educational purposes or the like, cannot be treated as a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe of the State to which he migrates and hence he cannot claim benefit as such in the latter State.

9. In the counter filed on behalf of the State of Maharashtra, it is contended that the question raised in this petition has been conclusively answered by a Constitution Bench of this Court in Marri Chandra Shekhar Rao v. Dean Seth G.S. Medical College and Ors. , and as such the petition is liable to be dismissed. Without prejudice to this preliminary contention, it is pointed out that the expression 'in relation to that State' read with the words 'for the purposes of this Constitution in Articles 341 and 342 leave on manner of doubt that the specification made is 'in relation to that State' for which it is made i.e. the State of origin and not the State to which a person migrates. That is because the concept of backwardness in Articles 15 and 16 is a relative one varying from area to area and region to region and hence it is not permissible to generalise any Caste or any Tribe as a Scheduled Caste or as Scheduled Tribe for the whole of the contrary. Therefore, a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in relation to a State would require necessary protection and benefits in that State to bring about equality but the social environment of the State to which he migrates may not be the same as in the State of his origin and therefore he cannot claim the benefits and privileges available to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the State to which he migrates. Therefore, the contention of the petitioners that on migration the caste or Tribe of the concerned person does not change and if such person is denied the concessions, benefits and privileges available to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the State to which he migrates, such a denial would be in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, in that, the right to equality and equal treatment would be denied, cannot be sustained. For the very same reason, the challenge to the communications and circulars issued by the Government of India and the Government of Maharashtra is without merit. It is, therefore, contended by the deponent that there is no merit in this petition and the same should be dismissed.