Candidate issued SC certificate in Haryana can't be denied reservation in Punjab: HC

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, February 23

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that a candidate issued a Balmiki or a Scheduled Caste certificate in Haryana cannot be denied the benefit of the reservation in Punjab as he cannot be treated as a migrant with both states being one before the re-organisation.

Procedural requirement can’t come in way

Procedural requirement of obtaining caste certificate from the Department of Welfare, Punjab, which is impossible for the appellant-candidate to do because of his residence in the State of Haryana, cannot come in the way of his getting appointment in the State of Punjab. Bench of Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur

“Persons who had been in the composite state of Punjab, and who continued to reside in the area covered by it even after re-organisation into separate states of Punjab and Haryana, cannot be said to have lost the Scheduled Caste status they enjoyed in the composite Punjab after re-organisation, more so, when the caste to which they belong to is specifically notified as a Scheduled Caste community even after the re-organization in the state of Haryana as well…,” the Bench of Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur asserted.

The ruling came on an appeal against the state of Punjab and other respondents by Gurvinder Singh through advocates Shreesh Kakkar and Kapil Kakkar. Appearing before the Bench, Shreesh argued that the appellant was not allowed to join as an accounts clerk on the ground that the caste certificate was issued by Haryana.

Shreesh argued that the appellant’s father, a retired Punjab government employee, was drawing his pension from Punjab, though he was settled in Haryana. The candidate did not lose the Scheduled Caste status on the ground of his residence. The state’s stand in the matter, however, was that a Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe person would lose his status on migration from the state of origin to another state.

The Bench asserted Haryana was constituted on November 1, 1966, following partition of former state of Punjab into two states. There was an amendment to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes Order, 1950). Balmiki was mentioned as a Scheduled Caste in the part relating to Haryana.

The Bench further asserted it was not necessary for the appellant to secure a caste certificate from Punjab, once the Balmiki community was treated as a Scheduled Caste in both the states and the competent authority in Haryana had issued the certificate. This was particularly true as his father, having secured employment in the Scheduled Caste category of Balmiki, had worked in, and retired from, Punjab.

The Bench added the concept of migration invoked by the respondents would not to apply to the case as Balmiki was notified as a Scheduled Caste community in both states and Haryana was carved out of the composite state of Punjab in 1966. There was no question of migration in the instant case.

“We are of the view that the action of the respondents in denying to the appellant the benefit of the reservation in Punjab on the ground that he produced a caste certificate issued by Haryana cannot be sustained, and it would defeat the Constitutional mandate provided in Articles 16, 19, 340 and 341,” the Bench asserted, while directing the state to allow the candidate to join.