TAPAN KUMAR Vs. CONVENER A P UNIVERSITY VISAKHAPATNAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The tragic partition of India had uprooted millions of innocent Indians who were in no way guilty of the Crime of vivisection of the country. In that holocaust, women were raped, children were burnt and millions had perished. Communal frenzy drove away sanity. Many of the survivors fled their ancient homes. The respective parents of the petitioners in Writ Petition Nos. 17127 of 1987 and 17254 of 1987 were two among those millions caught in that maelstrom of communal passions. They had thus been driven out of East Bengal. They migrated first to the State of West Bengal. Later they moved over to Kagaznagar of Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh. There they started their lives of toil a new and set up their families and brought up their children including the two petitioners. These two petitioners were born to their respective parents in Kagaznagar of Adilabad district. The parents are Hindus and belong to a caste called Namasudra. A Namasudra is an untouchable in the Hindu social hierarchy and is, for the liberating purposes of our Constitution, notified by the President of India in relation to the State of West Bengal as one of the Scheduled Castes. There is no choice for a Hindu in the matter of belonging to one of the Hindu castes. He is impotent even to renounce his caste so long as he is a Hindu. A Hindu inherits his unshakable caste affiliation from his parents. It is a part of his socio-genetic transmission. Thus the two petitioners have become Namasudras merely by reason of their birth. Because Namasudra is a Scheduled Caste in West Bengal, they claim to belong to the category of Scheduled Castes in the State of Andhra Pradesh too. On that basis, they claim to be entitled in the matter of admission into the State educational institutions, to the many concessions and priorities and preferences which are granted by the State of Andhra Pradesh to the Scheduled Castes. Tapan Kumar Roy son of Sathyendranath the petitioner in W.P. No. 17127 of 1987 unsuccessfully sought admission into the first year Ag. B.Sc., on the basis that he is a Scheduled Caste person. Similarly in Writ Petition No. 17254 of 1987, the petitioner Amithosh Mandal son of Anuthosh Mandal unsuccessfully sought admission into the first year B.E. class on the basis that he is a Scheduled Caste person.

(2.) Namasudras are not many in Andhra Pradesh. Their numbers are insignificant. The President of India had not notified at any time Namasudra caste in relation to the State of Andhra Pradesh as a Scheduled Caste. In these two Writ Petitions, the petitioners seek writs of mandamus to compel the State Government and its instrumentalities to treat them as Scheduled Castes and to admit them into the State run educational institutions against the seats reserved by the State Government of Andhra Pradesh for the Scheduled Castes. In support of their claims, they produced evidence of school certificates of Kagaznagar where they had been treated all along as belonging to Scheduled Castes and also the certificates they presently obtained from the Mandal Revenue Officer of Kagaznagar for the specific purpose of present admissions. The petitioners' contention in substance is that a Namasudra who is notified as a Scheduled Caste in relation to West Bengal by the President of India will be a Namasudra in any other part of India including Andhra and will not lose that status merely by reason of his moving out of the State of West Bengal and settling down in any other part of India. After all their right to move throughout the territory of India and settle down anywhere in India is guaranteed to them under Art.19(1) of the Constitution. As their fathers are Scheduled Castes so they too are Scheduled Castes.

(3.) These applications are opposed by the State. The contention of the State in substance is that the petitioners' fathers, though Namasudras by caste, cannot be considered as belonging to Scheduled Caste in the State of Andhra Pradesh because Namasudras are not notified by the President of India as a Scheduled Caste with reference to the State of Andhra Pradesh or any part thereof. The petitioners are, therefore, not Scheduled Castes.