JUDGMENT :

SANJAY KISHAN KAUL, J.

1. The freedom at midnight was followed by the framing of the Indian Constitution. The Constitution of India (for short ‘the Constitution’) took special care, given the social and economic scenario of our country, to provide for certain special benefits and privileges for persons from the under-privileged communities, i.e., the Scheduled Castes (for short ‘SCs’) and the Scheduled Tribes (for short ‘STs’). Thus, while prohibiting discrimination on grounds inter alia of race and caste, under Article 15 of the Constitution, while providing for equality of opportunity in matters of public employment under Article 16 of the Constitution, an enabling provision was made for providing reservation to people of these categories. In fact, Article 17, abolishing untouchability, was one more provision in this direction.

2. In the implementation of the aforesaid objectives, it became necessary to issue caste certificates for obtaining employment and admission to educational institutions. Unfortunately, this gave rise to vast area of malpractice as non-entitled