HC denies relief to MBBS student Challenging Admission Cancellation Over invalid Caste Certificate

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court recently dismissed a plea by a medical student challenging the cancellation of MBBS admission based on dispute over the case certificate submitted by her.

Holding that the said caste certificate was invalid, the State Government cancelled her admission. Already pursuing the second year of the MBBS course, the student argued that cancellation of her MBBS admission would lead to the wastage of one MBBS seat.

Although she urged the Court to permit her to finish her medical studies, citing that it would not cause any prejudice to the administration, the HC bench comprising Justice Sangeeta Vishen dismissed this argument after observing that the petitioner student had been admitted to the MBBS court by depriving another candidate.

"It is equally true that the petitioner secured the admission depriving the genuine claim of the reserved candidate," observed the HC bench while denying her relief.

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As per the latest media report by the Times of India, back in 2022, the petitioner student, Chaudhary, was admitted to the MBBS course at Ahmedabad-based Narendra Modi Medical College under the Social and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) quota. However, this admission was granted to her provisionally as the confirmation of the admission was subject to the verification of the caste certificate of the student by a scrutiny committee.

Upon investigation, the committee found that the student's caste certificate stating that she belonged to the 'Teli community' was invalid since she failed to establish that her family was a permanent president of Gujarat before April 1, 1978, which was a condition for the caste certificate stipulated in a government resolution in 1994.

TOI has reported that it was a cut-off date on which the SEBC quota was implemented in Gujarat after accepting the Bakshi Commission's recommendations. Meanwhile, the documents submitted by the student showing her family's existence in Gujarat before 1978 were found inadequate.

It was also argued by the student that she secured 507 marks in the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) in 2022. In this college, the cut-off for the open category was 515 and therefore, she secured admission in the reserved category based on the caste certificate. She further argued that if the scrutiny process had been quicker, she could have secured admission in the open category in any other medical college. 

However, taking note of her submissions, the HC bench clarified that hers was only a provisional admission subject to verification. The Court referred to the provisions of the rules and the Gujarat Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of Caste Certificate) Act, 2018 and observed, "The caste certificate was not in tune with the provisions of govt resolutions and hence, as per the provisions of sub-rule (9) of Rule 5 of the Rules of 2017, the provisional admission of the petitioner stood cancelled. Therefore, this Court does not find any error committed by the respondent no.1 (state govt) in cancelling the caste certificate, so also the admission of the petitioner and hence, the petition does not deserve to be entertained and is hereby dismissed."

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