RITHUL DEV M Vs. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in writ petition No.6778 of 2022 is the appellant before us aggrieved by the judgment dtd. 28/2/2022 of the learned Single Judge in the writ petition. The brief facts, necessary for the disposal of the writ appeal, are as follows :

(2.) The petitioner, aged 12 years, was a student of Class V in the Vidyanike than Public School, Payyoli, situated within the limits of Payyoli Municipality. He had preferred an application for consideration of his candidature as a student hailing from a rural area, under the prescribed quota for such students announced under the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya's scheme, which offered seats in the said institution to meritorious candidates hailing from both rural and urban areas in the ratio of 75% : 25%. Although the petitioner was found meritorious for admission to the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, his application came to be rejected on close scrutiny since it was found that he had applied for the seat under the category earmarked for rural candidates, whereas his pursuit of studies in the Vth standard in a school situated in an urban area disentitled him to a seat under the rural category. It is aggrieved by the rejection of his application that the petitioner approached this Court through the writ petition.

(3.) The learned Single Judge, who considered the matter took note of the specific provisions of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme and found that the pursuit by the petitioner of his education in the Vth standard in a school situated in an urban area effectively disqualified him from preferring an application as a rural candidate. It was also found that the mere residence of the petitioner in a rural area did not confer on him any right to be included in the rural category for the purposes of admission to Jawahar Navodaya school under the Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme. The writ petition was therefore dismissed by the learned Single Judge.