S. Sankarasubban, J.

Petitioner - P.A. Haridasan, is a member of the Subordinate Judicial Service of the Kerala State. He entered into the judicial service as Judicial Magistrate of Second Class and now he is working as judicial First Class Magistrate. The controversy in this case is regarding the caste to which the petitioner belongs. While the petitioner claims that he belongs to Thandan Community, respondents 1 and 2 are taking the view that he belongs to Thiyya community. The Thandan Community was declared to be a Scheduled Caste so far as the Travancore-Cochin area is concerned from 1950 onwards. But it was extended to the whole of Kerala only by Act 108 of 1976. The entire controversy arose because petitioner's caste in the High School Certificate was originally described as Thiyya but after the coming into force of Act 108 of 1976, petitioner got it corrected and changed it to Thandan. It was after this petitioner applied for the post of Magistrate under the General Recruitment as well as the Special Recruitment for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It appears that in both the categories petitioner came first, but because of the fact that he has crossed the maximum age for general category, he was appointed to the quota reserved for Scheduled Castes. Even when he was selected for appointment, there was a controversy whether he belongs to Scheduled Caste or not. At the instance of the Public Service Commission, the Government referred the matter to District Collector, Palakkad and the District Collector called for a report from the Assistant Collector regarding the caste status of the petitioner and the Assistant Collector by his report dated 8.2.1982 came to the conclusion that petitioner belonged to community Thandan other than Ezhava or Thiyya. He also relied on the fact that father and grand father of the petitioner belonged to Thandan community and that it can be seen from the endorsement made on certain documents which came into existence even prior to the birth of the petitioner. Not satisfied with this report, another report was called for and the Assistant Collector made further enquiries and gave a report dated 6.3.1982. According to this report, the Assistant Collector was fully satisfied that P.A. Haridasan, the petitioner herein belongs to Thandan community. After these reports of the Assistant Collector produced as Ext. P1 and P2, petitioner was recruited to the Judicial Service.

2. There has been a continuous complaint that many persons belonging to Ezhava/ Thiyya community in Palakkad Region were being issued certificates showing them as Thandans. According to the allegations, these certificates were issued without any basis. The resultant position was that many posts to which members of Scheduled Castes were entitled were snatched away by persons belonging to other communities posting themselves to be Scheduled Castes. The question arose whether a person belonging to the Thandan community in the Malabar region should be denied the benefit of status of belonging to Scheduled Caste merely because there are doubts that they had close relationship with Thiyyas and Ezhavas. The matter went to the Supreme Court and the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the decision reported in Pal-,hat J.T.S.S. Samithi v. State of Kerala, 1994 (1) KLT 118 had occasion to consider this aspect In the above decision, the Hon'ble Supreme Court held as follows:

"The Thandan community in the instant case having been listed in the Scheduled Castes Order as it now stands, it is not open to the State Government or indeed to this Court to embark upon an enquiry to determine whether a section of Ezhavas/Thiyyas which was called Thandan in the Malabar area of the State was excluded from the benefit of the Scheduled Castes Order".

It was further directed in the last paragraph of the judgment that "State Government is directed to grant to all members of the Thandan community, including those belonging to the erstwhile Malabar District a