Judgement

VAIDIALINGAM, J.:- These three appeals, in which the State of Andhra Pradesh is the first appellant, by special leave, are directed against the judgment and order dated May 13, 1971 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, in a batch of writ petitions, striking down Rule 9, in the Rules relating to the selection of candidates for admission to the Integrated M. B. B. S. Course in the Government Medical Colleges in the Andhra area, issued under G. O. No. 1648/Health dated July 23, 1970 as also G. O. No. 1793/Education dated September 23, 1970, regarding reservation of seats in professional colleges, for Backward Classes together with the annexure to the said notification containing the list of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes. The Addl. Director of Medical and Health Services, Hyderabad and Principal, Government Medical College, Guntur, are also appellants Nos. 2 and 3 respectively in the appeals.

2. The Government of Andhra Pradesh by G. O. No. 1648/Health dated July 23, 1970 announced Rules for the selection and admission of students to the Integrated M.B.B.S. Course in the Government Medical Colleges, in the Andhra area. The rules provided a pattern of allotment of seats by reference to certain qualifying examinations. The candidates eligible for admission to the Integrated M. B. B. S. Course, being largely taken from the students who had passed the qualifying examination for the Pre-University Course and those who had passed the Higher Secondary Course (Multipurpose), the rules provided for a pattern of earmarking seats for the students according to the qualifying examination taken by them. It may be mentioned at this stage that the H. S. C. Course (Multipurpose) students are called Multipurpose candidates since they pass their examinations from Multipurpose Schools.

3. Rule 8 dealt with the pattern of allotment of seats in respect of qualifying examination, Rule 9 outlined the procedure for selection. Rule 10 provided that all the reservations would be subject to the order of merit of marks obtained in the entrance test by the students in the relevant category of reservation, namely, P. U. C. and H. S. C. Rule 2 provided that the selections made under the Rules will be subject to any rules or orders that may be made in regard to the reservation of seats for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of students, having regard to the recommendations made by the Andhra Pradesh Backward Classes Commission. But there was a condition that such Rules or orders should have been made by the Government before the finalisation and communication of the selection of candidates.

4. On June 20, 1970, the Backward Classes Commission appointed by the State, a couple of years back, made its report regarding the various categories of persons who are to be treated as belonging to Backward Classes and recommended reservation of 30 of seats to persons belonging to the Backward Classes. The State by G. O. No. 1793/Education, dated September 23, 1970 announced reservation of 25 of the seats in the M. B. B. S. Course for candidates belonging to the various Backward Classes enumerated therein on the basis of the report of the Backward Classes Commission. In or about August, 1970, the validity of entrance provided under the Rules issued by G. O. No. 1648 of 1970 was challenged before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in a batch of writ petitions Nos. 3859, 3881, 3955 and 4052 of 1970. The challenge was on ground that the State had no power or authority to determine admission by reference only to the result of the entrance test thereby ignoring the result of the qualifying examinations taken by the candidates. Those writ petitions were dismissed by a learned Single Judge of the High Court on September 5, 1970. But on Letters Patent Appeals by the candidates, a Division Bench of the High Court on September 18, 1970 reversed the order of the Single Judge and struck down the provisions regarding holding of entrance test for admission to Gove