BINDU Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE above Writ Appeal is filed by the petitioner in o. P. No. 22795 of 1999 against the judgment dismissing the Original Petition. Appellant applied for admission to the Medical/ Engineering course invoking clause 5. 3. 4 (e) of the Prospectus, which states that the children of intercaste marriage couples, who claim reservation under SC/st quota should apply in the application form intended to SC/st candidates and should produce the SC/st certificate from the concerned Tahsildar in the prescribed form provided on the body of the application form in addition to the intercaste marriage certificate. According to the prospectus, the claim to get the benefit of SC/st will be subject to verification and clearance by the Screening Committee constituted by the Government. THE community certificate should clearly specify that the candidate himself belongs to SC/st. According to the appellant/ petitioner, her father belongs to Nair Community and her mother belongs to panan Community, which is a Scheduled Caste Community.

(2.) APPELLANT applied in the prescribed form and produced necessary certificates from the Tahsildar showing that she belongs to Scheduled castes. The claim of the appellant to get a seat on the basis of Scheduled caste Community was referred to'kirtads' and on the basis of the report, the commissioner of Entrance Examinations passed Ext. P5 order. The application of the appellant for admission to the Engineering/ Medical/ Agricultural Courses 1999 was rejected. APPELLANT challenged Ext. P5 order before the learned Single judge. The learned Single Judge dismissed the Original Petition and hence this writ Appeal. Before we discuss the point in issue, we shall give some more facts.

(3.) A statement was filed before the learned Single Judge by the Government Pleader. In Paragraph 3 of the statement, it is stated that the claim of the candidate for Scheduled Caste rests only on the caste status of her maternal grandmother. The candidate's father belongs to Nair Community. The candidate's mother's father also belongs to Nair Community. Hence the marriage between the son of a Nair and daughter of another Nair cannot be claimed as an intercaste marriage. The statement also relies on the report of the Screening Committee. The Original Petition was dismissed by the learned single Judge. The reasoning of the learned Single Judge is contained in paragraph 2 of the judgment, which is as follows: "the reservation is for uplifting the status of the scheduled castes. As per the Government Order, for encouraging mixed marriages, when petitioner's grandmother who was a scheduled caste married the father, their children got the benefit of scheduled caste even though petitioner's grandfather was a Nair. But that benefit cannot be claimed by the grandchildren whose father is admittedly a Nair and whose mother born out of a mixed marriage and who was identified as a member of a Nair Community as per the Screening committee report which is Ext. P5. Ext. P5 contains finding of fact". Hence the learned Single Judge refused to interfere with the matter.