SC Directs State Of Maharashtra & Medical College To Pay One Lakh Compensation To A Student For Illegally Cancelling His MBBS Admission

The Supreme Court directed the State of Maharashtra and a medical college to pay compensation of Rs. 1 lakh to a student as he was deprived of his one year and harassed due to cancellation of his admission in MBBS(UG) course.

The court also directed that until a suitable rectification is made in the guidelines/rules, candidate(s) domicile of the State of Maharashtra having acquired SSC and/or HSC qualification from any recognized institution: - (i) Whose parent(s) are domiciles of Maharashtra and employed in the Central Government or its Undertaking, defence services and/or in paramilitary forces viz. CRPF, BSF, etc. and; (ii)Such parent(s) are posted at any place in the country as on the last date of document verification, shall be entitled for a seat in MBBS Course in the Maharashtra State quota,

The Court was dealing with a batch of appeals filed by the student, a domicile of the Maharashtra State against the orders of the Bombay High Court.

The three-Judge Bench of Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice Rajesh Bindal, and Justice Sandeep Mehta said, “… it would neither be desirable nor justifiable to grant admission to the appellant in the on-going session of the MBBS(UG) course. However, considering the fact that the order cancelling the admission of the appellant herein was issued on 9th August, 2023 and the writ petition came to be filed before the High Court promptly i.e. on 10th August, 2023, without any delay whatsoever, the appellant is entitled to restoration of his seat in the first year of MBBS(UG) course in the same college in the next session, i.e., NEET UG-2024.”

Advocate Kshitij Kothale appeared for the appellant while Advocate Sarad Kumar Singhania appeared for the respondents.

Brief Facts -

The appellant was a domicile of the Maharashtra State and his father was employed in the Border Security Force (BSF) as a Head Constable (General Duty) [HC(GD)]. Owing to the deployment of his father outside the State, the appellant was compelled to complete his Secondary School Certificate (Standard X)(SSC) and Higher School Certificate (Standard XII)(HSC) education from a school outside the State. The appellant appeared in NEET-UG, 2023 craving admission in the undergraduate MBBS course against the State quota and upon being found meritorious, he was issued a provisional selection letter (CAP1) by the State Common Entrance Cell, Maharashtra and was allotted a seat in respondent College. He completed the requisite formalities and paid an amount of Rs. 13,500/- by way of admission fees and he had applied for admission under the Other Backward Class/Non-Creamy Layer (OBC/NCL) category as being domicile of the State.

However, without issuing notice and without providing any opportunity of being heard to the appellant, the College issued a letter/communication cancelling his admission. The letter/communication cancelling the admission was challenged by him before the High Court, raising a pertinent ground that he was entitled to the exception as provided under clause 4.8 of the NEET UG-2023 Information Brochure which pertains to the ‘Children of employees of Government of India or its Undertaking’ and that cancellation of his admission was totally illegal and arbitrary. The High Court dismissed his writ petition and held that since he did not select specified reservation i.e., in the category of Children of Defence personnel (DEF), while submitting the online application form, he was precluded from raising such a claim at a belated stage, as being impermissible in view of the rider contained in clause 9.4.4 of the Information Brochure. Hence, he was before the Apex Court.

The Supreme Court in view of the above facts directed, “… until a suitable rectification is made in the guidelines/rules, candidate(s) domicile of the State of Maharashtra having acquired SSC and/or HSC qualification from any recognized institution: -

(i) Whose parent(s) are domiciles of Maharashtra and employed in the Central Government or its Undertaking, defence services and/or in paramilitary forces viz. CRPF, BSF, etc. and;

(ii)Such parent(s) are posted at any place in the country as on the last date of document verification, shall be entitled for a seat in MBBS Course in the Maharashtra State quota.”

The Court further directed that the appellant shall be provided admission in the ‘OBC category domicile of State of Maharashtra child of person serving the Government of India’ in the first year of the MBBS(UG) course commencing from the year 2024 by creating an additional seat so as to ensure that there is no reduction in the quota of seats to the candidates who succeed in the NEET UG-2024.

“We also direct respondent No.6-College and respondent No.5- State of Maharashtra to pay compensation to the tune of Rs.1 lakh(Rs. 50,000/- each) to the appellant for the deprivation of one year and harassment on the account of illegal and arbitrary cancellation of his admission”, it also directed.

Accordingly, the Apex Court allowed the appeals and set aside the impugned orders.

Cause Title- Vansh S/o Prakash Dolas v. The Ministry of Education & The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2024 INSC 235)

Appearance:

Appellant: Advocates Kshitij Kothale, Satyajit A Desai, Siddharth Gautam, Abhinav K. Mutyalwar, Gajanan N Tirthkar, Vijay Raj Singh Chouhan, Ananya Thapliyal, and AOR Anagha S. Desai.

Respondents: AOR Sarad Kumar Singhania, Advocate Rashmi Singhania, AOR Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Advocates Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Bharat Bagla, Sourav Singh, Aditya Krishna, Preet S. Phanse, and Adarsh Dubey.

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