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It is seen that in exercise of the said power, the President had issued the public notification which is called Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes Order, 1950 and has been amended in 1976 after the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act, 1976 was made. As indicated earlier, Sunri (excluding Saha) is a Scheduled Caste for the purpose of State of West Bengal. The petitioner admittedly bears the name of Saha. The authorities found as a fact that for over a century the petitioner's family are Saha by caste. The President after consultation with the Governor, has excluded Saha, a liquor business community as Scheduled Caste. Though some Scheduled Castes by name Sunri adopted tapping as profession, they suffer from untouchability while Sahas, liquor business community like Sethi balija, Edigal or Gowda in Andhra Pradesh, are not Scheduled Castes. In the notice given to the petitioner dalits were given and the record produced before the authorities were considered by the competent authority which held that Sahas are not the Scheduled Castes and that, therefore, they cannot be considered to be Sunris. In a recent judgment in Nityananda Sharma & Anr. v. State of Bihar Ors. [JT 1996 (2) SC 117], a Bench of three Judges had examined the scope of judicial review and power of the court to go into the question of synonyms of the caste.

It is now settled law that though evidence may be admissible to the limited extent of finding out whether a caste which claims the status as Scheduled Caste or Tribe was in fact included in the Presidential notification as amended under 1976 Act, the court is devoid of power to include in or exclude from or substitute or declare synonyms to be a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. The courts would only look into the notification issued by the President to see whether the name finds place in the notification? Saha caste is expressly excluded from Sunri, a Scheduled Caste notified in the notification issued by the President in relation to the State of West Bengal which is conclusive. The certificate issued to the petitioner is, therefore, clearly unconstitutional and a fraud on the Constitution. The petitioner cannot be considered to be a Scheduled Caste.