Y MOHAN RAO Vs. PRINCIPAL GUNTUR MEDICAL COLLEGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the issue of a writ of certiorari calling for the records relating to Re. No. 8593/S1/73 dated 2-5-1974 of the Principal Guntur Medical College, Guntur, and to quash the same.

(2.) By the impugned order, the petitioners provisional selection to the 1st year Integrated M. B. B. S. Course of 1073-74 was cancelled by the Selection Committee "as he is not a Hindu by birth as required in G.O. Rt. No. 1315 Health dated 4-12-1978."

(3.) In the petition it is stated that the State of Andhra Pradesh in G. O. Rt. No. 1315 dated 4-12-1973, laid down the rules as to admission to 1st year Integrated M. B. B. S. Course for the year 1973-74 and invited applications and the selection was to be made on the basis of merit in the entrance test subject to certain reservations. The petitioner states that he passed the Intermediate examination and possesses the required qualifications, that he belongs to the Madiga caste which is one of the Scheduled castes, that he submitted the caste certificate in the prescribed form from the Tahsildar, Narasaraopet, Guntur District, that his application was accepted and he was admitted to the entrance test with Roll No. 3990 and that he was informed that he was selected and called upon to remit various fees prescribed and also to appear before the principal on 20-3-1974. Subsequently he was informed by the impugned order that his selection was cancelled as he is not a Hindu by birth as required by G. O. Rt. No. 1315 Health dated 4-12-1973. The petitioner contends that he is a Madiga by caste, that the Madiga caste is one of the castes enumerated in the Scheduled Castes and which is declared to be a Scheduled Caste by the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 issued by the President of India, in exercise of the powers under Article 341 of the Constitution, that under the aforesaid order it is enough if the person belonging to a Scheduled Caste professes the Hindu religion and that he need not be a Hindu by birth as required by the Note to the Appendix IV of the G. O. Rt. No. 1315 dated 4-12-1973 that the petitioner was born a Madiga to Christian parents, that throughout he was treated as belonging to Madiga caste, that subsequently when he had grown up, he approached Andhra Shuddi Sangham, Guntur and was converted to Hinduism by renouncing the Christian religion and that his name was also changed from Johnson Rao to Mohan Rao, that he was thereafter received into the Hindu fold and living as a Hindu, and the Tahsildar, issued a certificate to that effect, and that the impugned order cancelling the admission on the ground that he is not a Hindu by birth, is therefore illegal and void.