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PETITIONER: PRINCIPAL, GUNTUR MEDICAL COLLEGE, GUNTUR

       Vs.

RESPONDENT: Y.MOHAN RAO

DATE OF JUDGMENT06/04/1976

BENCH: BHAGWATI, P.N. BENCH: BHAGWATI, P.N. RAY, A.N. (CJ) GUPTA, A.C. FAZALALI, SYED MURTAZA SINGH, JASWANT

CITATION:  1976 AIR 1904            1976 SCR  (3)1046  1976 SCC  (3) 411

ACT:      Constitution  of   India-Articles  15(4)   29(2),  341, 366(24) Constitution (Scheduled Castes) order 1950-scheduled Caste- A Hindu belonging to a Scheduled Caste-Whether ceases to belong  to Scheduled Caste on conversion to Christianity. On reconversion  whether he  regains membership of Scheduled Caste-Whether n  person must  belong to  Scheduled Caste  by birth.

HEADNOTE:      The parents  of  the  respondent  originally  professed Hindu religion  and belonged  to Madiga  caste  which  is  a scheduled caste,  in the  Andhra Pradesh as specified in the schedule to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) order, 1950. Respondent’s parents  were  converted  to  Christianity  and thereafter the  respondent  was  born.  The  respondent  got himself  converted   to  Hinduism  renouncing  Christianity. Thereafter, he  applied  for  admission  to  Guntur  Medical College on  the basis  that he  was a  member of a Scheduled Caste. He  was  provisionally  selected  for  admission  but subsequently was  informed by the principal the College that his selection  was cancelled as he was not a Hindu by birth. The Principal  relied on Note (b) to Clause of rule 2 of the Rules  issued  by  the  Government  of  Andhra  Pradesh  for admission to  the  M.B.B.S.  course  in  Government  Medical College. The said note provides that no candidate other than Hindu can  claim to  belong to  Scheduled Caste.  It further provides that  no candidate  can belong  to Scheduled  Caste except by birth.      The respondent  filed a Writ Petition in the High Court challenging the  validity of  Note (b)  as going  beyond the scope of  the Constitution  (Scheduled Castes)  order, 1950. The respondent  succeeded before the learned single Judge as well as  the Division  Bench of  the High Court. In fact, it was conceded  by the  appellant before  the High  Court that note (b) was repugnant to the said order.      Dismissing the appeal by Special Leave, ^      HELD: 1.  It is clear on a plain reading of clause 4 of

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Article  15  that  the  State  has  power  to  make  special provision for  scheduled castes and in exercise of its power the State can reserve seats in a Medical College for members of Scheduled  Castes without violating Article 15 or Article 29(2). Article 366(24) defines Scheduled Castes to mean such castes, races  or tribes  as are deemed under Article 341 to be scheduled castes. The President in exercise of the powers conferred upon him under Article 341 has issued Constitution (Scheduled Castes)  order 1950.  Madiga caste is included in the schedule  to the  said order.  The  said  order  itself, however, provides  that no  person who. professes a religion other than Hindu or Sikh shall be deemed to be a member of a scheduled caste.  It, however,  does not  require  that  the should have  been born  a Hindu  or a  Sikh. The  only thing required is  that at  the material  time he  should  profess Hindu or  Sikh religion.  The requirement of the note 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 said order  and was  rightly condemned  as  void.  [1049B-H, 1050A]      2. There  is no  absolute rule  applicable in all cases that whenever a member of a caste is converted from Hinduism to Christianity  he loses  his membership  of the  caste. It would depend upon r the structure of the caste and its rules and regulations. There are some castes, 1047 particularly ill  South India,  where this  consequence does not follow  on conversion  since such  castes comprise  both Hindus and  Christians. Whether  Madiga caste  falls in this category is  a debatable  question. For  the purposes of the present appeal  it is not necessary to decide the contention of the  respondent that there are both Hindus and Christians in Madiga  caste and  even after  conversion to Christianity his parents continued to belong to Madiga caste. [1050-C-F]      3. A similar question about the effect of re-conversion was decided  by this Court in the case of C. R. Arumugam vs. S. Rajagopal.  In that  case this Court laid down that there is no  reason to  hold that  a  person  on  reconversion  to Hinduism cannot  once again  become a member of the caste in which he was born and to which he belonged before conversion to another  religion. The  reasoning on  which this decision proceeded is  equally applicable  will  a  cause  where  the parents  of   a  person   are  converted  from  Hinduism  to Christianity and  he is  born after  their conversion and on his subsequent embraching Hinduism, the members of the caste to which the parents belong prior to their conversion accept him as  a member  within the  fold. It is for the members of the caste  to decide whether or not to admit a person within the caste.  Since the  caste  is  a  social  combination  of persons governed  by its  rules and  regulations, it may, if its rules  and regulations  so provide,  admit a  new member just  as   it  may   expel  an  existing  member.  The  only requirement for  admission of  a person  as a  member of the caste is  the acceptance  of the reason by the other members of the  caste. On  conversion to Hinduism a person would not become a  member of  the caste to which his parents belonged prior to  their conversion,  automatically or as a matter of course but  he would become such member if the other members of the  caste accept  him as  a members and admit him within the fold. [1050G, 1051B-E]      There  is   nothing  on  record  to  show  whether  the respondent was  accepted by Madiga caste. However, it is not necessary to  undertake this  enquiry because  it  has  been agreed by  the appellants that whatever be the result of the appeal,  the  admission  of  the  respondent  would  not  be

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disturbed. [1051-FG]

JUDGMENT:      CIVlL APPELLATE  JURISDICTION: Civil  Appeal No. 984 of 1975.      Appeal by  Special Leave  from the  judgment and  Order dated the  10th February  1975 of  the Andhra  Pradesh  High Court in W.A. No. 752 of 1974.      P. Ramachandra Reddy, Advocate General, A.P., P. P. Rao and V. Seetharaman, for the appellant.      R. C.  Raghavan, G.  Vedanta Rao  and B. Kanta Rao, for the respondent.      The Judgment of the Court was delivered by      BHAGWATI,  J.   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 a  admission  to  a medical college.      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 1048 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 or 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 Madiga  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 Schedule Castes. No candidates

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    can claim  to belong  to the  Scheduled Caste except by      birth." 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 or 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,  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 1049 this Court dealing with the question as to whether a convert or reconvert  to Hinduism can become a member of a Scheduled Caste and  of 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.      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. 1  S 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 or groups within such castes, races  or tribes  as are deemed under article 341 to be Scheduled  Castes for the purposes of this Constitution." The President  in exercise  of the  power conferred upon him under  Art.  341  has  issued  the  Constitution  (Scheduled Castes) order,  1950. paragraphs  (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 Part 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." F The Schedule  to this  Order in  part I sets out the castes,

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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 c].  (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 1050 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.      The principal  argument advanced on behalf of the State was that  when the  respondent was converted to Hinduism, he did not  automatically become  a member of the Madiga caste, out 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 conversion to Hinduism, was  accepted as  a member  of the Madiga caste by the other  members of  that caste and, therefore, he was not at the  time of  his application for admission a member of a Scheduled caste      Now, before  we proceed to consider this contention, it is necessary  to point  out that  there is  no absolute rule applicable in all cases that whenever a member of a caste is converted  from  Hinduism  to  Christianity,  he  loses  his membership of  the caste.  This question has been considered by this  Court in  C. M.  Arumugam v. S. Rajgopal and it has been pointed  out there  that ordinarily  it is true that on 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 regulations. There are some castes, particularly in South India, where this consequence does not follow on conversion, since such castes comprise both Hindus and Christians. Whether Madiga is a caste which falls within this category is a debatable question. The contention of the respondent in  his writ  petition was  that  mere  are  both Hindus  and  Christians  in  Madiga  caste  and  even  after conversion to  Christianity, his parents continued to belong to Madiga  caste and  he was,  therefore, 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 parents  of the  respondent  lost  their  membership  of Madiga caste  and that  the respondent was, therefore, not a Madiga by  birth. The  question  is:  could  the  respondent become a  member of Madiga caste on conversion to Hindusim ? That is  a question on which considerable light is thrown by the decision  of this Court in C. M. Arumugam v. S. Rajgopal

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(supra).      The main  question which  arose for  decision in  C. M. Arumugamr v.  S. RaJgopal  (supra) was  whether S. Raigopal, who belonged  to Adi  Dravida caste before his conversion to Christianity, could,  on reconversion to Hinduism once again become a  member of the Adi Dravida caste. This Court, after examining the  question on  principle and  referring to  the decided cases, pointed out that the consistent view taken in this country since 1886 was that on reconversion to 1051 Hinduism, a  person can  once again  become a  member of the caste in  which he  was born and to which he belonged before conversion to  another religion, if the members of the caste accept him  as a  member. This Court observed that there was no reason, either on principle 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 by the other members of the caste.      The reasoning  on  which  this  decision  proceeded  is equally applicable  in a  case where the parents of a person are converted  from Hinduism  to Christianity and he is born after their  conversion and  on his  subsequently  embracing Hinduism, the  members of  the caste  to which  the  parents belonged prior  to their  conversion accept  him as a member within the  fold. It  is for  the members  of the  caste  to decide whether  or not  to admit  a person within the caste. Since the  caste is a social combination of persons governed by its  rules and  regulations, it  may, if  its  rules  and regulations so  provide, admit  a new  member just as it may expel an existing member. The only requirement for admission of a  person as  a member  of the caste is the acceptance of the person  by the  other members  of  the  caste,  for,  as pointed out  by Krishnaswami  Ayyangar, J.,  in Durgaprasada Rao v.  Sudarsanaswami,"in matters  affecting the well being or composition  of a  caste, the caste itself is the supreme judge". (emphasis  supplied). It  will, therefore,  be  seen that on  conversion to  Hinduism, a person born of Christian converts 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 member, if the other members of the caste accept him as a member and admit him 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  claim 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.      We accordingly  dismiss the appeal with costs in favour of the respondent. P.H.P.                                     Appeal dismissed. 1052