Sri K.Pavan, learned counsel appearing on behalf of Sri Kowturu Vinay Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner, would raise several grounds in his challenge to the impugned order of cancellation. Learned counsel would contend that if the Act were held to be applicable, then it is the District Collector and not the Joint Collector, who is the competent authority and, even if the impugned order of cancellation in W.P.No.6436 of 2000 is held to have been passed prior to the Act coming into force, the Government Orders issued from time to time prescribed the Director of Tribal Welfare as one among the competent authorities. Learned counsel would submit that the Director of Tribal Welfare would be the person most competent to enquire into the status of a person claiming to belong to a scheduled tribe and that, in any event, the Government was the custodian of the service records of the petitioners’ father, a police constable, who retired from service and passed away in 1980. Learned counsel would contend that, reliance placed by the respondents on the circular dated 02-05-1975, to contend that, since the petitioners’ father was working in Chittoor District and had left his village even prior to the Presidential Order coming into force, the petitioners were not entitled to claim the benefit of
