P.N.BHAGWAT, J.

(1) THE short question that arises for determination in this appeal is: whether a person whose parents belonged to a scheduled caste before their conversion to Christianity can, on conversion or reconversion to Hinduism, be regarded as a member of the scheduled castes so as to be eligible for the benefit of reservation of seats for scheduled castes in the matter of admission to a medical college.

(2) THE parents of the respondent originally professed Hindu religion and belonged to Madiga caste which is admittedly a caste deemed to be a scheduled caste in the State of Andhra Pradesh as specified in Part I of the schedule to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950. They were both converted to Christianity at some point of time which does not appear clearly from the record, but it was the case of the respondent in his writ petition that he was bom after their conversion. This was also the assumption on which the arguments proceeded before the High court and before us, too. The Counsel for the respondent expressed his readiness to argue the case on the same assumption, namely, that the respondent was born after the conversion of his parents, or, in other words, he was born of Christian parents. It appears that in the State of Andhra Pradesh, for the purpose inter alia of admission to medical college, converts to Christianity are treated as belonging to backward class and, therefore, when the respondent applied for admission to Gandhi Medical College in 1973, he described himself as a member of a backward class. But he did not succeed in getting admission. Thereupon he got himself converted to Hinduism on 20/09/1973 from Andhra Pradesh Arunchatiya Sangham stating that he had renounced Christianity and embraced Hinduism aftergoing through Suddhi ceremony and he was thereafter "received back into Madiga caste of Hindu fold". On the strength of this certificate, claiming to be a member of Madiga caste, the respondent applied for admission to Guntur Medical College and on the basis that he was a member of a scheduled caste, he was provisionally selected for admission. But subsequently he was informed by the Principal of the medical college that his selection was cancelled as he was not a Hindu by birth. The Principal apparently relied on note (b) to clause (c) of Rule 2 of the Rules issued by the government of Andhra Pradesh under G. 0. Rt. No. 1315 dated 4/12/1973 for admission to the M.B.B.S. course in government medical colleges for the academic year 1973-74. This note was in the following terms:

NO candidate other than Hindu including a Sikh can claim to belong to Scheduled Castes. No candidates can claim to belong to the Scheduled Castes except by birth.

The respondent thereupon preferred a writ petition in the High court of Andhra Pradesh challenging the validity of cancellation of his admission on the ground that note (b), which required that a candidate, in order to be eligible for a seat reserved for scheduled caste, should belong to a scheduled caste by birth, went beyond the scope of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and was, therefore, void and the Principal was not entitled to cancel his admission on the ground that he was not a Hindu or a member of a scheduled caste by birth. This ground of challenge was accepted by a Single Judge of the High court and on appeal, a division bench of the High court also took the same view. In fact, it was conceded before the division bench by the learned government pleader appearing on behalf of the State that note (b) was repugnant to the provisions of clause (3) of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, since the only requirement of that clause was that in order to be a member of a scheduled caste, a person should be professing Hindu or Sikh religion and it did not prescribe that he should be a Hindu by birth. The State did not succeed in obtaining leave to appeal from the High court and hence it preferred a