The main legal point established in the judgment is the necessity for separate and independent reservation for different sections of backward classes within the total reservation quota to ensure fairness and prevent the denial of reservation benefits to deserving classes.

P. Subramonian poti, J,

1. Latin Catholic Community is one among the classes recognised as socially and educationally backward in the Kerala State. All the groups and sections considered as backward in this State are not at the same level in the social scale. Some of them are in the region of the border line and their claim to be backward is now and then challenged too. Some are at the bottom of the scale. To treat all the backward classes alike and as in one group would be unfair and unjust. That would serve to fatten some at the cost of others. The weaker section among the backward will continue to be backward and the promotional device contemplated by the process of reservation would not subserve their interests. It would defeat the very purpose of the reservation. Separate and independent reservation for different sections of the backward classes within the total reservation quota is the logical answer and that has been adopted as the appropriate device. The quantum of such separate reservation would call for assessment from time to time with a view to render the reservation in favour of the more backward classes a reality. Sometimes that may call for a separate treatment of some groups within the reserved class. I am prefacing this judgment with these remarks as it appears to be relevant here. Either due to lack of imagination or absence of application of the mind the State Government had adopted an anomalous formula in the matter of reservation of seats in the Engineering Colleges of the State which device has effectively denied to some deserving classes the benefit of reservation. May be it is not by design, but due to ignorance, but that is no consolation to the communities concerned. A strange, but apparently ingenious device has been adopted as if to secure for all the sections in the backward class reservation in the matter of admission to the Engineering College. Theoretically reservation there is, but in fact reservation is totally dented to communities like the Latin Catholics. The approach exhibits a visible lack of pragmatism.

2. The prospectus Issued in the name of the Director of Technical Education regulating the admission to the Engineering Colleges in the state during the year 1977-78 specifies 50 seats in the 4 year Engineering Degree Course as available for admission to graduates in science. Out of these 50 seats admission on the basis of State merit would be to 50 per cent of the scats and admission on the basis of allocation between Malabar and Travancore - Cochin would be to 15 per cent of the seats. The balance 35 per cent is reserved for socially and educationally backward classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In this group Latin Catholic (other than Anglo - Indians) have reservation to two out of the 35 per cent. Thus if 50 is the total number of seats available for science graduates for admission normally one seat must go to Latin Catholics. There were only two Latin Catholic applicants this year, the petitioner Valsamma, J. being the one and one Raphel, J. being the other. Both of them had qualifying marks. Raphel, J. had higher marks than the petitioner. Admittedly he did not Tee En Publications This Product is Licenced to Unnikrishnan Vappear for interview and thus forfeited his right to have admission to the course. The petitioner was the only other eligible candidate from the Latin Catholic community for admission in the reservation quota if that was available. Normally one should understand the rule of reservation as enabling the petitioner to get a seat out of the total of 50 towards the 2 per cent reservation for the Latin Catholic Community. But the petitioner was denied admission and that is the complaint in the petition. It may also be remarked here that there are 6 branches in the Engineering Degree Course, they being Civil, Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical, Architecture and Electronics and Communications. The petitioner filed separate applications for Civil, Electric