TIRUCHY: When 17-year-old S Bharath from Thoonur village in the Pachamalai Hills stepped into the student help desk at Government Model Higher Secondary School in Thuvakudi on Friday, holding his certificates to confirm his seat at Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU) in Tiruchirappalli, it marked a quiet but significant milestone he had become the first tribal student from the Pachamalai region to clear the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and secure a seat at a national law university.
Bharath, who studied at the Government Tribal Higher Secondary School in Chinna Illupur, earned an All India ST rank of 964. He secured admission to the B.Com., LLB (Hons.) course at TNNLU under the 7.5% horizontal reservation for government school students, specifically through the ST-Tamil Nadu government school student quota. He was allotted the seat in the second round of CLAT counselling on 4 June, claiming the only seat available under this special category across the state.
He confirmed his admission on Friday at the help desk set up in Thuvakudi to assist students from underprivileged backgrounds with the admission process. His father and a schoolteacher accompanied him. The seat-freezing fee of Rs 20,000 was paid by the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department.
"This is a meaningful moment not just for Bharath but for our entire school and community," said P Arjuselvam, Headmaster of the school run by the Tribal Welfare Department, adding, "He is the first from our school, and from the hills, to reach this level."
A state-level department official confirmed that Bharath ranked highest in the CLAT exam among students from the 28 Government Tribal Residential Schools in Tamil Nadu and is the first student from these schools in this year’s admissions to enter the law university in Tiruchirappalli.
Bharath completed Class 12 in the commerce stream, scoring 356 out of 600, and had secured 353 out of 500 in Class 10 — both in Tamil medium. Despite CLAT being conducted only in English, he overcame the language barrier through consistent coaching, mock tests, and a short-term orientation programme held at TNNLU prior to the exam.
His village, Thoonur, is one among over 50 tribal habitations spread across three panchayats in the Pachamalai Hills, home to around 15,000 people. Access to higher education, particularly professional courses, remains scarce in the region.
To support aspirants like Bharath, the Tribal Welfare Department facilitated special coaching in partnership with private institutions. "Along with five others, he received focused training, model tests, and study materials," said a teacher who mentored him.
Bharath lost his mother 10 years ago. His father, A Selvakumar, works as a daily-wage mason and cultivates tapioca on a small patch of land. "I raised all three children with support from my parents after my wife passed away," Selvakumar said. "No one from our tribal community in the hills has ever entered a national law university before. This is new for all of us. He has inspired the rest of my children."
Bharath said he had watched Jai Bhim once before, but it was only after his CLAT results came out on 17 May and village elders urged him to watch it again that the film struck a deeper chord. "This time, I saw it differently," he said. "I realised this is what I want to do be a lawyer who stands up for people like us, whose voices are never heard."