ST certificate cancelled 40 years later: Retired employee loses claim to full pension benefits, what Madras HC said

The Madras High Court has upheld the cancellation of a Chennai Port Trust employee’s Scheduled Tribe (ST) community certificate after authorities concluded that he belonged to the Urali Gounder community and not the Urali tribe. The court also refused to direct the release of his full pension, gratuity , leave salary and other terminal benefits.

In A. Jegannathan v. The Chairman, Chennai Port Trust & Others, decided on 16 September 2026, Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy held that the verification of a community certificate could not be blocked merely because the employee had retired or the certificate had been issued decades earlier.

Jegannathan was issued a community certificate stating that he belonged to the Hindu Urali tribe, which is recognised as a Scheduled Tribe in Tamil Nadu. He was subsequently appointed at the Chennai Port Trust against an ST-reserved vacancy and served for more than three decades before retiring on 31 January 2013.

His retirement benefits were not fully released because verification of his community status was pending. He approached the High Court seeking full pension , commutation, gratuity, leave salary and other terminal benefits.

The dispute over his community status, however, was not new. According to the State Level Scrutiny Committee, verification had begun soon after his appointment. The certificate was referred for verification in 1983, and revenue authorities subsequently raised questions about his claimed ST status.

The records considered by the authorities included the petitioner's school records, which described his community as Urali Gounder. The Salem Collector had concluded in 1984 that the certificate was not genuine and that the petitioner had failed to establish that he belonged to the Urali tribe.

The matter went through several rounds of litigation. A fresh inquiry was ordered in 1986, and in 1990 the District Collector again concluded that Jegannathan belonged to the Urali Gounder community rather than the Scheduled Tribe. He was discharged from Chennai Port Trust in September 1990, but subsequent legal proceedings kept the issue alive.

After the State Level Scrutiny Committee became the competent authority for such verification, the case was transferred between different authorities. The process ultimately continued until the State Level Scrutiny Committee passed its order on 19 August 2021, concluding that the ST certificate was not genuine.

One of Jegannathan's main arguments was that his community certificate should not have been scrutinised after his retirement and that certificates issued before 1995 should not be reopened.

The High Court rejected this argument, relying on the Madras High Court's recent Full Bench decision in R. Gurusamy v. Tamil Nadu State Level Scrutiny Committee and Others, decided on 30 July 2026.

The Full Bench had considered three questions: whether community status can be verified after retirement, whether certificates issued or employment granted before 1995 can be scrutinised, and whether an inquiry that began before retirement can continue after retirement.