J PRIYA MINOR Vs. DEAN TIRUNELVELI MEDICAL COLLEGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . The Case of the Petitioner as can be gathered from the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition and briefly stated, is as follows: The Petitioner belongs to the Community of Konda Reddy which is a scheduled Tribe according to the Constitution Scheduled Tribes order, 1950. She was so described as Konda Reddy in the S. S. L. C. book. Her mother had been given a community certificate by the Tahsildar, Mettur Dam as early as on 12. 9. 1978 and she is working as an Organiser in Ihe Nutritious Noon meal Scheme of the Government of Tamil Nadu from 1984, Some of the other relatives of the petitioner are also described as Konda Reddis. She studied the 12th Standard in the Nirmala Higher Secondary School , Kolathur and applied for admission to the m. B. B. S. course. She was selected for the said course. On 13. 6. 1995 the second respondent Selection Committee had written a letter to the petitioner directing her to produce a community certificate from the Revenue Divisional Officer on or before 26. 6. 1995.

(2.) THE petitioner had applied as early as on 18. 10. 1994 to the R. D. O. , the third respondent herein, to issue a community certificate, but in the R. D. O. , did not make enquiries and did not issue certificate. Whenever the father of the petitioner visited him he was informed that the matter was being looked into. Since the petitioner was running the risk of losing her selection to the M. B. B. S. course she was obliged to file W. P. No. 8322 of 1995 seeking a writ of Mandamus to direct the R. D. O. to issue community certificate pursuant to her application dated 18. 10. 1994. THE said writ petition was allowed on 30. 6. 1995 with a direction to the third respondents to dispose of the petitioner's application within two weeks. Inspite of service of copy of the order, the third respondent has not disposed of the application of the petitioner filed for issue of community certificate. Having regard to the documentary evidence produced by the petitioner there should have been no delay or difficulty in issuing the community certificate.

(3.) ON the other hand, Mrs. Saraswathi Prasad, learned additional Government Pleader, submitted that the petitioner failed to produce the community certificate from the R. D. O. as required along with the application made for admission on 3. 6. 1995; she did not produce the community certificate on or before 26. 6. 1995 as directed by the second respondent ~ the selection Committee. Hence the seat was allotted to the next candidate belonging to Scheduled Tribe on the basis of merit and the candidate Miss. K. Kavitha has already joined the course on 4. 7. 1995; the request of the petitioner for extension of time by 15 days more, vide her letter dated 20. 6. 1995 was not considered as such a request for extension of time could not be entertained after the prescribed date for submission of documents by the selection committee.