1. The petitioner was an applicant for admission to the M. B. B. S. course. He did not succeed in securing a seat. According to him but for Ext. P-4, a Press Release dated 10-7-1957, he would have been admitted, and his attempt in this petition is to challenge the validity of the directions embodied in that Press Release.

2. Ext. P-4 is in the following terms:

"Government have directed that seats for the Engineering and Medical Colleges will be distributed between Malabar area and Travancore-Cochin area in the ratio 5:8. This will apply only to the total number of admissions for the State including seats for the Backward classes and scheduled classes. The reservation of seats for backward classes and Scheduled classes will be worked on a State basis".

3. Counsel for the petitioner submitted that he was confining the attack to the distribution of seats between the Malabar and Travancore-Cochin areas and that he did not propose to challenge the reservation in favour of the Backward and Scheduled Classes. It follows that the only question we have to consider is whether the said distribution of seats in the ratio of 5:8 is hit by any of the provisions of the Constitution.

4. Ar