• I 046 PRINCIPAL v. Y. MOHAN RAO (Bhagwati
Case at a glance
- Bench
- MURTAZA FAZAL, JASWANT SINGH
Provisions considered
Key paragraphs
- Para 33. Not\vithstanding anything contained in P<iragraph 2, no person who profesoos a religion different Hindu or the Sikh religion sha1! be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste. " .. \ ' The Schedule to this Order in Part I sets out the…
Judgment
The respondent thereupon preferred 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 flor 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 birtb. This ground of challenge was accepted by a Single Judge of the High Court and on appeal, a Divis!ion 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 o1l cl. Comtitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, since the only require ment 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 'pecial leave petition came up for hearing, there was no decis!ion of (3) of + I <;UNTUR MEDICAL COLLEGE v. Y. MOHAN RAO (Bhagwati, !.) 1049 1 this Court dealing with the question as to whether a convert or re- convert 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 th:is Court to which B we shall refer later. A It is clear on a plain reading of clause (4) of Art.
15 that the State has power to make special provision ior Scheduled Castes and in exercise of this power, the State can reserve scats 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 mcam "'such castes. races or tribes or parts of or groups within such castes. to be Scheduled the purposes of this Constitution. " The PresiJent in Castes for exercise of the power conferred up(ln him under Art. 341 has issued the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, ! 950. Paragraphs ( 2) and (3) of this Order arc material and they read as follows: + races or tribes as arc deemed under article 341 • "2. Subject to the provisions of this Order, the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within caste or trlibes 'opeeified in Part I to XIII ofi the Schedule to this Order shall. in relation to the States to which these parts respect- tively relate, be deemed to be scheduled castes so far resident in the localities as regards members thereof specified in relation to them in those Parts of Schedule.
Not\vithstanding anything contained in P<iragraph 2, no person who profesoos a religion different Hindu or the Sikh religion sha1! 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 differ ent 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 d~med to ?c a n~e~1ber of a Scheduled Caste unless l).e 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 requir ed is that he should at the material time be professing Hihdu or Sikh religion. Now, Note (b) was interpreted by the Principal of tI1e 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.
Tl~is interprcJation was plainly erroneous because what Note (b) re qmred was not that a cansidatc should be a Hindu by birth but that I 05 0 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [19761 3 s.c.R. he should belong to a Schednled Oaste by birth. . But even this re quirement that a candidate v,1 order to be eligible for a reserved seat shon!d be a member of a Schednled Caste by birth went beyond the provision in cl. ( 3) of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order. y 1950 and was rightly condemned as void and no reliance was placed upon it on behalf of the Srate. The principal argument adval,1ced on behalf of the State was that when the respondent was converted to Hinduism, he did not auto matically become a member of the Madiga caste, but it was open to the members of the Madiga caste to accept him within their fold and it was only if he was so accepted, that he could claim to have become a member of the Madiga caste.
There was no evidence in the present case, contended the State, showing that the respondent, on his conver- sion to Hinduism, was accepted as a member of the Madiga caste by the other members of that caste and, tilerefore, he was not at the time of his application for admission a member of a Schednled Caste. Now, before we proceed to consider this contention, it is neces- sary to point out that there is no absolute rule applicable in all cases that whenever a member of a caste is converted from Hi,1duism to Christianity, he loses his membership of the caste. This question has been considered by this Court in C. M. Arumugam v. S. Rajgopal(') that on and it has been pointed out there that ordinarily it is true conversion to Christianity, a person would cease to be a member of the caste to which he belongs, but that is not an invariable rule. It would depend on the structure of the caste and its rules and regula- tions.
There are some castes, particularly in South India, where this consequence does not follow on conversion, since such castes com prise both Hindus and ChristiffiQs. Whether Mediga is a caste which fulls within this category is a debatable question. The contention of the respondent in bis writ petition was that there are both Hindus and Christians in Madiga caste and even after conversioa to Christianity, his parents continued to belong to Madiga caste and he was, there- fore, a member of Madiga caste right from the time of his birth. It is not necessary for the purpose of the present appeal to decide this question. We may assume that, on conversion to Christianity, the pare1,1ts of the respondent lost their membership of Madiga caste and that the res]JO!ldent was, therefore. not a Madiga by birth. The question is ': conld the respondent become· a member of Madiga caste on conversion to Hinduism ? That is a question on which consider able light is thrown hv the decisicm of this Court in C. M. Arumugam v.
S. Rajgopal (supra). .+ ' The main question which arose for decision in C. M. Arumugam v. S. Rafgopal l•unra) was whether S. Raigopa!, who belonged to Adi Dravida caste before his conversion to Christianitv. could. on re conversion to Hinduism, Clace again become a member of the Adi Dravida caste. This Court. after examining the auestion on Princi- ple and referring to the decided cases, pointed out that the consistent view taken in this rountry since 1886 was that on reconversion H / · (l) [1976] 1 s.c.c. 863. GUNTUR ME[)JCAL COLLEGE v. Y. MOHAN RAO (Bhagwati, J:) I 051 Hinduism, a person can once again become a member of the caste in. A which he was born and to which he belonged before conversion to another religion, if the memb, ers of the caste accept him as a member. This Court observed that there was 110 reason, either o~ piinciple or on authority, which should compel it to disregard this view which has prevailed for almost a century and lay down a different rule on the subject and concluded that on reconversion to Hinduism, S. Rajgopal could once again revert to his Adi Dravida caste, for he was accepted B by the other members of the caste.
The reasoning on which this decision proceeded is equally appli cable i,1 a case where the parents of a person ure converted Hinduism to Christianity and he is born after their conversion and on his subsequently embracing Hinduislli, the members of the caste to which the parents belonged prior to their conversion accept him as a C \ It is for the members of the caste to decide member within the fold. whether or not to admit a perso>,1 within the caste. Since the caste is a social combination of persons governed 11Y its rules and regula- tions, it may, if 'its rules and regulations so provide, admit a new member just as it may expel an existing member. The only require- ment for admission of a person as a member of the caste is the accep- tance of the person by the other members of the caste, for, as pomted D out by Krishnaswami Ayya1agar, J., in Durgaprasada Rao v. Sudar sanaswami('), "in matters affecting the well being or composition of a caste, the caste itself is the supreme iudge".
(emphasis supplied). It will, therefore, be seen that on conversion to Hinduism, a person born of Christian colaverts would not become a member of the caste to which his parents belonged prior to their conversion to Christianity, automatically or as a matter of course, but he would become such f\ E member, if the other members of the caste accept him as a member , I · and admit hinl within the fold. This view would have ordinarily required us to find whether, on the material on record, it could be said to have been established by the respondent that, on conversion to Hinduism, he was accepted as a member of Madiga caste by the other members of that caste, for it is only if he was so accepted that he could clainl to be a member of a Scheduled Caste. But it is not necessary for us to undertake this inquiry because. as already pointed out, it has been agreed by the State that, whatever be the result of this appeal, the admission of the respondent will not be disturbed. F We accordingly dismiss the appeal with costs in favour of respondelat. G P.H.P. Appeal dismisred. (l) A.J.R. 1940 Mad. 513.
Precedent status how later indexed judgments have treated this case
No known negative treatment found in the Courts & Cases corpus.
Another 2 relationships are under human verification and not counted above.
This is a result about the indexed corpus, not a finding that the judgment remains good law. Coverage may be incomplete.
Later judgments that treat this case
- Followed2015_3_243_286
- Relied on2024_11_1504_1524