Filing ITR Instead Of Income Certificate Cannot Lead An Eligible Meritorious Candidate To Be Deprived Of Scholarship: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court has observed that a mere discrepancy in filing the Income Tax Return instead of the Income Certificate cannot lead to a situation where an eligible meritorious candidate is deprived of the scholarship.

The bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh made this observation while dealing with a plea of a law student whose scholarship application was rejected on the ground that he did not file the `Income Certificate' but instead had filed the Income Tax Return.

The petitioner-law student belongs to the Scheduled Caste category and wished to avail of the Central Sector Scholarship Scheme of Top Class Education for SC Students.

However, his scholarship application was rejected on the ground that the Income Tax Return Certificate was invalid.

The Counsel for the petitioner submitted that authorities cannot take a hyper-technical approach when it comes to scholarships and similar schemes.

Advocate Amit George appeared for the petitioner whereas Advocate Vivek Goyal appeared for the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry.

The Court observed that the Petitioner has been found meritorious by the University. The Court noted that the University has confirmed in the recommendation that the Petitioner was selected in the Merit List.

Thus the Court held that a mere discrepancy in filing the Income Tax Return instead of the Income Certificate, despite the two documents evidencing the same parameters of income requirements, cannot lead to a situation where an eligible meritorious candidate is deprived of the scholarship.

"A perusal of the Income Tax Return along with Computation of Total Income also clearly shows that the eligibility is met by the Petitioner, and the income depicted in both documents is exactly the same. A hyper technical approach obviously ought not to be taken in this matter.", the Court observed.

Thus while observing that the petitioner is otherwise eligible, the Court directed to process the Petitioner's application for grant of scholarship under the Scheme.

The Court ordered to grant the scholarship to the Petitioner within eight weeks.

Cause Title- Bajrang v. Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment & Anr. (Neutral Citation No- 2022/DHC/00552)

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