Madras High Court: Puducherry Reservation Based on Mother's Native Origin Upheld

The Madras High Court has held that candidates born and raised in Puducherry can claim Scheduled Caste (SC), Most Backward Class (MBC), and Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation benefits based on their mother's native origin status even if their father is a migrant from outside the Union Territory [Thelagam vs Union Territory of Puducherry]By way of an order passed on August 27, Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy allowed a batch of 28 petitions and set aside orders of the Union Territory administration that had refused or downgraded community certificates to "migrant" status solely because the petitioners' fathers, though of the same caste as their mothers, had moved to Puducherry from other States.The Court rejected Puducherry's position that caste status must be traced through the father since Indian society is patriarchal.The Court ruled that such reasoning cannot be sustained under Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution, particularly after the 2004 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act gave women equal coparcenary rights. "The society is driven as under by ‘Caste’, and it operates to a great extent in the minds of the people. Similarly, while sex is true, in that any person is born as male, female or intersex, gender stereotypes are based on stories and beliefs built over a period of time, and they are not necessarily true," the Court said in its order.Justice D Bharatha ChakravarthyMadras High CourtThe society is driven as under by ‘Caste’, and it operates to a great