HONOURABLE SHRI JUSTICE R.SUBHASH REDDY WRIT PETITION No. 18745 OF 2006 Dated 13th September, 2006 Between: Kum. C.Ranika D/o Sri C.Pentaiah … Petitioner And The District Collector, Collectorate, Hyderabad and others. … Respondents. ORAL ORDER: In this writ petition, the petitioner seeks directions by way of writ of mandamus to declare the action of the respondents 4 and 5 in not granting admission to the petitioner in the Engineering stream in Scheduled Tribe quota and also questions the action of the respondents in insisting upon the caste certificate certifying the petitioner as belonging to Scheduled Tribe. It is the case of the petitioner that the petitioner belongs to Scheduled Tribe i.e. Pardhi community. She appeared for EAMCET examination for admission into Engineering stream and secured the rank of 92607 and qualified for admission. But, when she attended for counselling and though seats are available under S.T. quota, the 4th respondent insisted for the production of caste certificate, and requested her to come for recounselling along with the caste certificate. Then the petitioner approached the 2nd respondent requesting him to issue Scheduled Tribe certificate with sub-caste “Nakkala”, which is notified at Sl.No.34 in the Second Schedule to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act, 2002, as “Pardhis” of Telangana Region and “Nakkalas” of Andhra Region are one and the same, and, in fact, a letter was addressed by the Commissioner of Tribal Welfare on 4.1.2003 to the Secretary to the Government, Social Welfare Department stating that “Pardhis” deserve to be included in the list of Scheduled Tribes along with Nakkala/Kurivikaran as synonym in the list of Scheduled Tribes of Andhra Pradesh. But, the second respondent, who is the competent authority under the Andhra Pradesh (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes) Regulation of Issue of Community Certificates Act, 1993, instead of issuing the caste certificate referred the matter to the Commissioner, Tribal Welfare Department for clarification. Hence, the writ petition. The question as to whether the “Pardhi” community is a Scheduled Tribe or not and the petitioner belongs to “Nakkala” community, are not the matters to be probed into by this Court and it is a matter to be enquired into by the competent authority who is invested with the power to issue the caste certificates under the Andhra Pradesh (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes) Regulation of Issue of Community Certificates Act, 1993, and before issuance of any certificate to the petitioner as belonging to Scheduled Tribe, no direction can be given in respect of admission of the petitioner into the Engineering stream under the Scheduled Tribe category basing on the School Leaving Certificate, as it is obligatory on the part of the petitioner to produce the certificates insisted upon by the authorities pursuant the scheme of admissions. Inasmuch as an application has already been filed by the petitioner on 28.8.2006 before the 2nd respondent for issuance of caste certificate, the second respondent shall pass appropriate orders within a period of four weeks from today and communicate the same to the petitioner. Subject to above direction, the writ petition is disposed of. No costs. _______________________ 13.9.2006 (R.SUBHASH REDDY, J.) VR