( 1 ) THE petitioners assail the order of the 1st respondent dt. 24-1-1990 whereby the respective Social Status Certificates granted to them by the Tahsildar, Yellavaram, declaring them as belonging to Konda Kapu community, have been cancelled.

( 2 ) ALL the petitioners are brothers being sons of one Varre Ayyappa Naidu. It would appear that the earliest known ancestor in the male line of the petitioners one Varre ayyappa Naidu had two sons - Veeraiah and Venkata Narasaiah. Veeraiah had a son by name Krishnamurthy, who in turn had four sons-Apparao, Satyanarayana, Paparao and Ramarao. The other son of Ayyappa naidu, Venkata Narasaiah had a son by name Ayyappa Naidu, the father of the petitioners herein. This Ayyappa Naidu had 8 sons, the petitioners herein who are six in number and two others satyanarayana and Suryanarayana.

( 3 ) THE petitioners assert that they are all native of Pidatamamidi village since their ancestors from 1830 and that all their education records as well as birth extracts describe them as Konda Kapu. The petitioners father Ayyappa Naidu served as the Village Munsif of Pidatamamidi village, a village in the Agency tract of yellavaram in East Godavari District. After ayyappa Naidu served as Village Munsif for 30 years, the 1st petitioner was appointed as such in 1976 and continued to be so till the institution was abolished in 1983. The 1st petitioner has also been elected as Sarpanch of Pidatamamidi Gram panchayat for two times during 1966 to 1976 in a situation where the post of sarpanch was reserved for members belonging to Scheduled Tribe community, the village being situate in a scheduled area.

( 4 ) IN the above scenario the 2nd respondent has called the 1st petitioner somewhere in October 1987 and asked him to furnish all the details regarding the family history so as to enquire into the particulars of the community of the petitioner. The petitioner thereupon submitted various documents including birth extracts of various members of the family, Social Status Certificates issued in favour of the petitioners as well as their father and uncles as well as the birth extracts and school records belonging to the children of the various petitioners. On behalf of the petitioners the pension papers pertaining to their grandfather Varre venkata Narasaiah have also been submitted to demonstrate that the family was residing in Pidatamamidi village even prior to 1900.

( 5 ) THE 1st respondent appears to have called for a report from the 2nd respondent regarding the community status of the petitioners. Based on the said report, the 1st respondent issued a show-cause notice dt. 7-9-89 proposing cancellation of the community status certificates of the petitioners. The basis for the above proposal is the finding contained in the report of the 2nd respondent submitted to the 1st respondent dt. 17-7-89, which has however, not been communicated to the petitioner. Thereupon, on behalf of the petitioners a representation was made to the 1st respondent dt. 7-10-89 seeking supply of a copy of the 2nd respondent s alleged report dt. 17-7-89 to enable submission of effective explanation by the petitioners. The petitioners in the said representation also sought adequate time to offer their explanation/objections. The respondent, the petitioners complain, without either supplying the report of the 2nd respondent or affording reasonable time passed the impugned order cancelling the various social Status Certificates issued by the competent authorities in favour of the respective petitioners.

( 6 ) THE petitioners assail the 1st respondent s order impugned herein on various grounds namely that it suffers from vice of violation of principles of natural justice as the report of the 2nd respondent dt. 17-7-89 on which it is based has not been furnished to the petitioners, thus denying them a;reasonable and fair opportunity to rebut the conclusions of the 2nd respondent, which substantively weighed with the 1st resp