SC/ST Status Is State-specific, Cannot Travel With Migrants: Orissa HC

The Orissa High Court has held that Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) classifications under Presidential notifications are state-specific and cannot automatically be claimed by a person migrating from one state to another.

In a ruling arising from a land sale dispute in Mayurbhanj district, the court quashed an administrative order directing a Jharkhand resident to obtain prior permission before transferring his land on the ground that he belonged to a Scheduled Tribe in Odisha, according to Hindustan Times.

The case concerned petitioner Binoy Krishna Das, who was asked by the district registrar-cum-additional district magistrate (ADM) of Mayurbhanj to seek permission before transferring his land. The court rejected the authority’s reasoning and held that recognition as an SC or ST in one state does not automatically confer the same status in another.

The court set aside the administrative letter and directed the registration of the sale deed.

Land Sale Dispute

Das, a resident of Jharkhand, stays in Baripada town in Mayurbhanj district for his trading business. He sold 0.14 acres of land in the district to a person belonging to the SC community for ₹10 lakh.

The sale deed was executed before the sub-registrar in Kuliana in March this year but was not accepted. Das subsequently approached the district registrar-cum-ADM.

In a letter dated April 23, the district registrar-cum-ADM stated that Das belonged to the Bhuiya community, which is classified as a Scheduled Tribe in Odisha. The authority said prior permission was required because the buyer did not belong to a Scheduled Tribe.

Odisha Regulation 2 of 1956 restricts certain transfers of land belonging to Scheduled Tribes. Section 22 of the Odisha Land Reforms Act also governs restrictions on transfers of land by ST members to non-tribal persons.

Court's Legal Reasoning

Justice Sashikanta Mishra rejected the administrative authority's approach and held that caste and tribal classifications under Presidential notifications are specific to individual states.

“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,” the court observed.

The court said a person migrating from one state to another cannot automatically claim the SC or ST status recognised in their state of origin.

It also examined the classification of the Bhuiya community. The court observed that Bhuiya was not notified as a Scheduled Caste in Odisha and held that Das could not automatically be treated as a member of a Scheduled Tribe there merely because the community appears in Odisha's ST list.

“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,” Justice Mishra said.

The court added that the entry in Odisha's Presidential notification did not extend to a person belonging to the Bhuiya community in Jharkhand, where it is recognised as a Scheduled Caste.

Questioning the basis for requiring prior permission, the judge said the district registrar-cum-ADM had overlooked this distinction. Since Das could not be treated as a Scheduled Tribe in Odisha on that basis, the restrictions under Regulation 2 of 1956 could not be applied to him.

The High Court quashed the district registrar-cum-ADM's letter dated April 23 and directed the sub-registrar-cum-tehsildar in Kuliana to register the sale deed.