High Court upholds medical college decision to cancel admission of panipuri seller’s son

The High Court’s latest decision sets aside a single judge’s order last year, which had allowed the student to secure admission under the SEBC category on grounds of equity. The appeal was submitted after the university took action over his caste certificate. While he had claimed to belong to the SEBC community of Gujarat, the scrutiny panel found he belonged to the OBC community of Uttar Pradesh.

On Tuesday, the bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee recorded that granting such indulgence would result in “denying opportunity to an otherwise eligible candidate belonging to SEBC category in Gujarat…violating the right of an eligible candidate in the said category who otherwise could have secured admission against the seat” and such indulgence has resulted in an ineligible person to secure admission in a category to which he does not belong.

Last year, the student was granted provisional admission subject to verification of documents. He claimed to belong to the ‘Teli’ sub-caste, which is classified as an SEBC category in Gujarat, in a caste certificate dated August 20, 2018.

Following verification, the varsity’s scrutiny committee cancelled the caste certificate and his admission too was cancelled by the college in September 2023. The panel found he is a native of UP and belonged to the Teli subcaste under the OBC category in UP. The cancellation was not challenged by the petitioner.

The MBBS aspirant then moved the HC, seeking that his admission be secured by shifting his category from SEBC to the general category as he was otherwise placed in the list of open categories as well and was thus eligible to be admitted to a medical college as per his ranking in NEET UG. A single judge order of the HC had allowed him to do that by exercising extraordinary jurisdiction, on grounds of equity. The single judge’s order was later challenged by the admission committee of the college.

The division bench, while setting aside the single judge’s order, Tuesday also alluded that it doubted the veracity of the caste certificate and indicated that the same may have been obtained by “fraudulent means”.

Chief Justice Agarwal remarked, “We have to take some tough decisions but the rule of law has to prevail. This kind of indulgence in one matter gives a completely wrong signal that anyone can do it and get away. This would give a signal that anybody can do it and get away with the order of the court because the court is giving sympathy to anyone who is coming to the court…”

“We cannot rule out this element of getting this certificate by fraudulent means or extraneous considerations. Once this certificate is cancelled, your admission goes automatically. Now sympathy is not the ground to save admission in this kind of cases… there is no law in your favour, it is only indulgence. We do not want this kind of sympathy to be given because why not to others then? Tomorrow someone else will come…you’ve to come out with a categorical case….there are many students like you who are adopting proper means, trying for these competitive exams, they are in the same situation, they are brighter than you but they do not adopt this kind of means to seek admission… Our judicial conscience does not say that this caste certificate was acquired by lawful means”