Bhagwati, J. - (1.) The short question that arises for determination in this appeal is:whether a person whose parents belonged to a Scheduled Caste before their conversion to Christianity can, on conversion or reconversion to Hinduism, be regarded as a member of the Scheduled Caste so as to be eligible for the benefit of reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes in the matter of admission to a medical college.
(2.) The parents of the respondent originally professed Hindu religion and belonged to Madiga caste which is admittedly a caste deemed to be a Scheduled Caste in the State of Andhra Pradesh as specified in Part I of the Schedule to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950. They were both converted to Christianity at some point of time which does not appear clearly from the record, but it was the case of the respondent in his Writ Petition that he was born after their conversion. This was also the assumption on which the arguments proceeded before the High Court and before us, too. The counsel for the respondent expressed his readiness to argue the case on the same assumption, namely, that the respondent was born after the conversion of his parents, or, in other words, he was born of Christian parents. It appears that in the State of Andhra Pradesh, for the purpose inter alia of admission to medical college, converts to Christianity are treated as belonging, to backward class and, therefore, when the respondent applied for admission to Gandhi Medical College in 1973, he described himself as a member of a backward class. But he did not succeed in getting admission. Thereupon he got himself converted to Hinduism on 20th September, 1973 from Andhra Pradesh Arunchatiya Sangham stating that he had renounced Christianity and embraced Hinduism after going through Suddhi ceremony and he was thereafter "received back into Mediga caste of Hindu fold." On the strength of this certificate, claiming to be a member of Madiga caste, the respondent applied for admission to Guntur Medical College and on the basis that he was a member of a Scheduled Caste, he was provisionally selected for admission. But subsequently he was informed by the Principal of the Medical College that his selection was cancelled as he was not a Hindu by birth. The Principal apparently relied on Note (b) to clause (c) of Rule 2 of the Rules issued by the Government of Andhra Pradesh under GO Rt. No. 1315 dated 4th December, 1973 for admission to the M.B.B.S. Course in Government Medical Colleges for the Academic year 1973-74. This Note was in the following terms: "No candidate other than Hindu including a Sikh can claim to belong to Scheduled Castes. No candidates can claim to belong to the Scheduled Caste except to birth." The respondent thereupon preferred in a writ petition in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh challenging the validity of cancellation of his admission on the ground that Note (b), which required that a candidate, in order to be eligible for a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste, should belong to a Scheduled Caste by birth, went beyond the scope of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and was, therefore, void and the Principal was not entitled to cancel his admission on the ground that he was not a Hindu or a member of a Scheduled Caste by birth. This ground of challenge was accepted by a Single Judge of the High Court and on appeal, a Division Bench of the High Court also took the same view. In fact, it was conceded before the Division Bench by the learned Government Pleader appearing on behalf of the State that Note (b) was repugnant to the provisions of Cl. (3) of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 since the only requirement of that clause was that in order to be a member of a Scheduled Caste, a person should be professing Hindu or Sikh religion and it did not prescribe that he should be a Hindu by birth. The State did not succeed in obtaining leave to appeal from the High Court and hence it preferred a special leave petition to this Court. When the special leave petition came up for hearing, there was no decision of this Court dealing with the question as to whether a convert or reconvert to Hinduism can become a member of a Scheduled Caste and if so, in what circumstances and hence we granted special leave to the State, on the State agreeing that whatever be the result of the appeal, the admission of the respondent will not be disturbed and that the State will, in any event pay the costs of the respondent. It may be pointed out that since then a decision on this question has been rendered by a Bench of three Judges of this Court to which we shall refer later.
(3.) It is clear on a plain reading of clause (4) of Art. 15 that the State has power to make special provision for Scheduled Castes and in exercise of this power, the State can reserve seats in a medical college for members of Scheduled Castes without violating Art. 15 or Cl. (2) of Art. 29. The expression 'Scheduled Castes' has a technical meaning given to it by cl. (24) of Art. 366 and it means 'such castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within such castes, races or tribes as are deemed under article 341 to be Scheduled Castes for the purpose of this Constitution." The President in exercise of the power conferred upon him under Art. 341 has issued the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950. Paras (2) and (3) of this Order are material and they read as follows: "2. Subject to the provisions of this Order, the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within caste or tribes specified in Parts I to XIII of the Schedule to this Order shall, in relation to the States to which these parts respectively relate, be deemed to be scheduled castes so far as regards members thereof resident in the localities specified in relation to them in those Parts of that Schedule. 3. Notwithstanding anything contained in Paragraph 2, no person who professes a religion different from the Hindu or the Sikh religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste." The Schedule to this Order in Part I sets out the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes or tribes which shall in the different areas of the State of Andhra Pradesh be deemed to be Scheduled Castes. One of the castes specified there is Madiga caste and that caste must, therefore, be deemed to be a Scheduled Caste. But by reason of Cl. (3) a person belonging to Madiga caste would not be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste unless he professes Hindu or Sikh religion at the relevant time. It is not necessary that he should have been born a Hindu or a Sikh. The only thing required is that he should at the material time be professing Hindu or Sikh religion. Now, Note (b) was interpreted by the Principal of the Medical College to require that a candidate, in order to be eligible for a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes, should be a Hindu by birth. This interpretation was plainly erroneous because what Note (b) required was not that a candidate should be a Hindu by birth but that he should belong to a Scheduled Caste by birth. But even this requirement that a candidate in order to be eligible for a reserved seat should be a member of a Scheduled Caste by birth went beyond the provision in Cl. (3) of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and was rightly condemned as void and no reliance was placed upon it on behalf of the State.;