Mumbai The Bombay high court came to the rescue of a 30-year-old Kurla resident who was about to lose his MBBS degree and a post-graduate diploma in Ophthalmology for allegedly securing admission through Scheduled Tribes category to the medical course at Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital by producing a bogus Caste Validity Certificate.
On Tuesday, the division bench of justice SV Gangapurwala and justice RN Laddha partially struck down a communication issued by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) on July 17, 2019. DMER had instructed the state-run medical college to write to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik, to cancel the MBBS degree conferred on Mohammed Arif Mohammed Irfan Khan. It had also asked the college to levy a fine on him for having completed the medical course based on a forged Caste Validity Certificate.
The communication stated that the Caste Scrutiny Committee at Nandurbar had on February 12, 2019 informed the DMER that the Validity Certificate submitted by the Kurla resident while seeking admission to MBBS course in academic year 2010-11 was not issued by it.
Khan had moved the high court through advocate Madhav Thorat after the medical college started acting on the communication and on August 21, 2019 directed him to deposit an amount of ₹10.93 lakhs – ₹10 lakh towards penalty, 72,000 towards internship allowance and ₹21,000 towards first year fees.
Advocate Thorat pointed out that Khan completed his MBBS course in February 2015 and compulsory one-year internship in April 2016, and thereafter he also completed postgraduate diploma in Ophthalmology in June 2019. He said his father had come in contact with one Yasin Mirza, who after inspecting their documents informed him that they belonged to the Tadvi community, a Scheduled Tribe, and as such they can seek admission from the reserved category.
In any case, advocate Thorat added, Khan had secured 854th rank in open category and 4th rank in ST category and as such entitled to admission for MBBS court in a government medical college and as such would be deemed to have admitted under open category, as provided under Clause 2.4 of the Brochure for admission under MH-CET 2010.
A government lawyer opposed the petition, contending that the petitioner had knowingly submitted a false Caste Validity Certificate for securing admission to MBBS court and therefore his degree was liable to be cancelled.
HC accepted Thorat’s contentions and held that it was not a fit case to take away the degree conferred on the petitioner, especially in view of Clause 2.4 of the Brochure. The bench said a perusal of the rule made it abundantly clear that even if a person opted for admission from a reserved category and the marks obtained are sufficient to admit him from open category, then his admission will have to be considered from open category and one seat in college where he was eligible for open seat shall be earmarked for a candidate belonging to the reserve category.
“In that view, because of the admission of the petitioner, seat of Scheduled Tribe reserved category candidate cannot be said to be lost,” said the bench.
The bench, however, refused to interfere with the order issued by Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, asking him to deposit ₹10.93 lakhs. “We feel the same to be appropriate and proper,” said the bench, referring to the fact that had Khan been admitted from open category he would not have got a much-sought-after MBBS seat in Mumbai and therefore Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital were justified in imposing the penalty.
