The judgment emphasizes the importance of meeting the specific criteria outlined in the Constitution and relevant laws to qualify for benefits, such as admission to educational courses under reserved quotas.

The petitioner seeks to quash Ext.P13 report and Ext.P20 memo and to issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ, order or direction to the first respondent to keep one seat for admission to Medicall Agricultural Courses 1992-93 in the Scheduled Caste quota.

2. The original petition has been filed by Sapna Jacob, a minor girl represented by her mother, who claims to be a member of the Scheduled Caste being a Hindu by religion and Pulaya by caste. Petitioner contends that her mother belongs to Pulaya caste and Hindu religion. Her mother while working as Telephone Operator in the Indian Postal and Telegraphic Department got acquainted with an employee in the same Department who belonged to Christian religion and they got married on 18-11-1973. Petitioner Sapna Jacob and younger brother Tijo Jacob were born in that wedlock. According to the petitioner even after the marriage of the petitioner's mother she continued to be a member of the Hindu religion and has been offering prayers and conducting poojas as a Hindu and the petitioner's mother never changed her religion. Petitioner and her mother were not baptized and they had not converted to Christianity. Petitioner, being a child born on an inter-caste marriage between a Scheduled Caste and a non-Scheduled Caste, is a member of the Scheduled Caste.

3. Along with the original petition the petitioner produced the copy of the S. S.1. C. Book (page 3) and the certificate issued by the Tahsildar, Kannur and also the letter issued by the Vice-President, Kerala Harijan Samajam to prove that the petitioner is a member of the Scheduled Caste. The petitioner also relied on Ext.P7 order, issued by the Government of Kerala, in support of her contention that she is a member of the scheduled caste.

4. For the purpose of the provisions of the Indian Constitution a scheduled caste has been defined under Art.341 of the Constitution. It is as follows:

"341.Scheduled Castes---(1) The President may with respect to any State or Union Territory and where it is a State after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be.

(2) Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Castes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any caste, race or tribe or part of or group within any caste, race or tribe, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification."-

It is correct to say that a member of Pulaya caste belonging to Hindu community is included in the notification issued by the President under Art.341 of the Constitution. So as per the notification issued by the President of India a member of the Pulaya Caste belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jaina or Buddhist religion alone would become a Scheduled Caste.

5. The crucial question to be decided is whether the petitioner is a member of Hindu religion. Petitioner claims to be a Hindu on the basis that her mother was not converted to Christianity on her marriage with V.M. Jacob. But the petitioner has no case that she has been leading a Hindu way of life and that she was ever accepted by the Hindu community as their member. In an illuminating judgment rendered by His Lordship the Chief Justice Gajendragadkar in Yagnapurushdasji v. Muldas (AIR 1966 SC 1119) it is held:

"(39) Whilst we are dealing with this broad and comprehensive aspect of Hindu religion, it may be permissible to enquire what, according to this religion, is the ultimate goal of humanity? It is the release and freedom from the unceasing cycle of births and rebirths, Moksha or Nirvana, which is the ultimate aim of Hindu religion and philosophy, represents the state of absolute absorption and assimilation of the individual soul with the infinite. Wh