SUSAN THOMAS Vs. GOVT OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three writ petitions attack the validity of the reservations in favour of the Malabar area of this State for the purpose of admission to educational institutions, and, with particular reference to these O. Ps., to the medical colleges of the State. The validity of the said provision was recently examined by a Full Bench of five Judges of this Court in W. A. Nos. 309 and 312 of 1977 (reported in AIR 1978 Ker. 176 ) and the reservation in respect of the Malabar area was upheld as a valid and permissible geographical classification based on historical reasons under Art.14 of the Constitution. It was pointed out in that judgment that the writ petitions which were dealt with in the appeals had wrongly attacked the reservations on the basis of Art.15(4) of the Constitution, and that judgment of the learned Judge also appeared to have proceeded on that basis. However, the Full Bench did not preclude the appellants from urging their attack against the reservations with reference to Art.14 of the Constitution. This the appellants did; and after elaborate arguments ranging for over four days, the appeals were allowed and reservation was upheld.

(2.) The attempt of the petitioners in the present Original Petitions is to cover the same ground over again. The justification for what was rightly characterised by my learned brother as an "audacious attempt", is that in the cases disposed of by the Full Bench previously, Art.14 had not been expressly pleaded and therefore the appellants had no occasion to place the relevant materials for directing their attack on the basis of Art.14. It was stated that in these writ petitions a wealth of material had been placed before the Court.

(3.) We are satisfied that there is absolutely no justification for this contention. However, as in the previous appeals dealt with by the Full Bench, where we dealt with the grounds of attack raised by the writ petitioners on their merits irrespective of the pleadings in these writ petitions too, we have examined the so called additional material placed before us by the writ petitioners. We are satisfied that it is wholly insufficient.