The legal point established in the judgment is the revival of the original caste identity after reconversion to Hinduism and the requirement of conclusive evidence of religious adherence to justify cancellation of community certificates.

R. SUBBIAH, J.

This writ petition is filed with the prayer of certiorarified mandamus to quash the proceeding of the first respondent dated 5.1.2007 whereby the community certificates issued in favour of the writ petitioner in Certificate No. 550 of 1994 dated 1.9.1994 and Certificate No. 3949 of 2003 dated 11.11.2003 by the then Tahsildar of Ambasamudram are cancelled.

2. It is the case of the writ petitioner that he belongs to Hindu Pallan Community, which is recognized as a Scheduled Caste. He was born to one K. Marudhan and Chellam, who are the parents of the writ petitioner. His mother chellam is the second wife to his father. She also belongs to the same community. Though his father belongs to Hindu Pallan Community, his mother was a Christian by birth, converted into Hindu Religion after her marriage with the father of the petitioner. In fact, the marriage between his father and mother took place only in Hindu Temple. So far as the petitioner is concerned, he was embracing Hindu Religion and custom and traditionally professing only the Hindu practices. He has no shade of Christian custom or rites.

3. It is further submitted that he was born on 14.6.1976 and was originally named as M. Jothy. Later his name was changed as M.Ram Sankar when he was 13 years old. The necessary Gazette Notification was also published by his father in Tamilnadu Government Gazette Notification dated 5.6.1989. In his school records, he was referred as 'Hindu Pallan' and even in his college records his caste was mentioned only as 'Hindu Pallan'. In other words, the contention of the writ petitioner is that he never followed any Christian practice or considered himself as Christian. That apart, the writ petitioner also stated in the affidavit sworn by him and filed in support of his prayer for issuance of the community certificate that he is a strong believer of Hindu Faith. He was issued with a Community Certificate No. 550 of 1994 dated 1.9.1994 as Hindu Pallan by the then Tahsildar, Ambasamudram. Once again, when he applied for certificate in the year 2003, the Tahsildar, Ambasamudram issued a Certificate No. 3949 of 2003 dated 11.11.2003 as Hindu Pallan, and that he belongs to Scheduled Caste.

4. However, a complicated problem arose when his father applied for a community certificate for his sister Mary Vanitha in the year 2005 and his sister's application, with a request for issuance of community certificate as 'Hindu Pallan' was rejected by the Tahsildar, Ambasamudram by order dated 19.1.2005. When his father made an appeal against the said rejection order with the second respondent, the second respondent passed an order dated 31.3.2005 rejecting the appeal filed by his father stating that his daughter (sister of the petitioner) was baptized in the Kooniyoor RC Church. Further, in the said order, the second respondent had also observed that a report would be submitted to the District Collector, Tirunelveli to examine the Community Certificate already issued in favour of the petitioner herein and to his other sister. Hence, the father of the petitioner had filed an appeal against the said order before the first respondent stating that he had not brought up his children as Christians. With reference to his appeal, the first respondent called for a report from the second respondent. Accordingly, a report dated 2.6.2005 was also sent to the second respondent by the first respondent. On being summoned, the petitioner has also attended the enquiry before the First respondent on 19.9.2005, since the father of the petitioner was not in a position to attend the enquiry. After completing the enquiry, the first respondent passed an order dated 5.1.2007 in the appeal rejecting the same and cancelled the certificates issued in favour of the writ petitioner by the then Tahsildar of Ambasamudram and decided that the writ petitioner does not belong to Hindu Pallan Community. Aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner herein filed an appeal before the Stat