Sympathy not ground to save admission: Gujarat HC cancels MBBS admission due to inconsistencies in caste certificate

Ahmedabad: Having scored 613 out of 720 marks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2022, an MBBS student whose admission was cancelled due to inconsistencies in caste certificate, has been denied conversion of his seat from the reserved category to the general category by the Gujarat High Court recently. 

Upholding the decision regarding the cancellation of his MBBS admission, the division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P. Mayee said that he did not belong to the Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC) in the State of Gujarat and the conversion of his to general category could not take place as he had applied admission based on the reserved category.

“Once this certificate is cancelled, your admission goes automatically. No one can save your admission. Sympathy is not a ground to save admission in this kind of case. There is no question of considering you in the open category. Once someone has claimed the benefit of reservation, he has to stand by that.” observed the bench. 

Also read- MBBS Admission Cancelled Due To Inconsistencies In Caste Certificate, Student Seeks Urgent Intervention From Gujarat HC

During the hearing, the bench also asked “Why would you go to get this certificate when you knew that you do not belong to the caste in the State of Gujarat.”

According to Bar and Bench reports, the order was issued on Tuesday, two months after a single judge decided to reinstate the student's admission, considering his family background and commending his accomplishments. This decision was challenged by the Admission Committee For Professional Medical Educational Courses.

Earlier, the student approached the High Court with a request to direct authorities to convert his seat to the general category as he was denied admission based on his reserve category certificate. 

The student scored 613 marks out of 720 with a merit rank of 600 in the NEET UG-examination 2022 in the General category and a merit rank of 154 in the SEBC category. He was eligible for admission to all 39 medical and 12 dental colleges, except three colleges, including the one where he was studying, as reported by Ahmedabad Mirror. 

Observing that he had got an admission based on a certificate that could not have been issued, the division bench suggested that the student could have competed in Uttar Pradesh to get admission under the reserved category since he could not get admission in Gujarat with Other Backward Class category. 

“You cannot get benefit [of reservation] in the State of Gujarat. Go back to the State of UP. You will get benefit over there. You compete in State of UP.”

In this case, the student is the son of a pani puri vendor from Meghraj in Aravalli district, who got admission to the Vadodara government medical college under the Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC) category based on the caste certificate issued in 2018. He was born in Uttar Pradesh but did his schooling in Gujarat.

After his admission, when the state admission committee sent his caste documents for verification, the developing caste welfare department found his caste, mentioned as Teli, does not fall under the SEBC category in Gujarat. Following this, the Admission Committee for Professional Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Educational Courses (ACPUGMEC, ACPPGMEC) cancelled Rathod’s admission. 

On September 1, 2023, his admission was cancelled due to the rejection of the caste certificate he had submitted to the college by both the state government and the state admission committee.

Following this, he challenged the cancellation of admission before the High Court. 

Justice Nikhil S Kariel in a ruling on January 29 allowed his petition and said the cancellation of admission after the admission process being over with no possibility of the vacancy being filled in by an eligible candidate would result in the seat going vacant.

“Since seats in all colleges where the petitioner could have got admission are filled in and since the admission process is long over, the petitioner in spite of scoring very high marks in the NEET (UG-2022) entrance exam would not get admission in MBBS Course,” the judge had said.

Taking note of the financial condition of the candidate’s family, the single-bench judge decided to exercise extraordinary jurisdiction in the case.

“That a son of a person who is engaged in selling Panipuris having reached the stage of admission to an MBBS course on merits is in itself a commendable feat and whereas further considering this aspect from the view point of the fact that the marks secured by the petitioner were so much sufficient that except for three colleges who had been entitled to admission in all other colleges in the State of Gujarat, clearly point out to the fact that the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court is required to be exercised in favour of the petitioner to ensure that he has a chance to complete his MBBS Course which seat otherwise would remain vacant for the entire term.”

Refuting the single bench decision, the division bench said the student would have been eligible for being considered for admission in the open category in a majority of the medical colleges but there was no doubt he had got admission to the specific college where he was not allowed to apply based on a certificate.

“The decision to save admission of the petitioner merely by the fact that he has attained high marks in the NEET examination and could have secured admission in the open category in any of the colleges in the State of Gujarat cannot be a reason to secure his admission in the college concerned,” the Court opined.

The Court also said no fault can be attributed either to the Admission Committee or any authority of the college concerned. “The place which the respondent/original petitioner has secured in the medical college has resulted in denying the opportunity of securing admission to an otherwise eligible candidate belonging to the SEBC category in the State of Gujarat,” it added.

Noting that none of the student’s family members had an SEBC certificate in Gujarat, the court said “The caste comes from parents. You are born in a caste. You don’t acquire caste otherwise. If your parents did not have an SEBC certificate in Gujarat, you could not have got it.” 

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