DIPALI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD parties.

(2.) RULE made returnable forthwith. By consent, taken up for hearing forthwith.

(3.) THIS is a petition by a girl born in Maharashtra and whose parents are domiciled in Maharashtra. Petitioners father was serving in the Armed Forces and, therefore, the petitioner had to take and continue her education wherever her father was posted. The petitioner has passed both her S. S. C. and H. S. C. examinations from outside the State of Maharashtra. The Government of Maharashtra framed rules and called for applications for admissions to the Medical and Dental Colleges in Maharashtra for the year 1998-99 and the last date for applying was 20th June 1998. On this day, petitioners father was in active Defence service. Since he is a domicile of Maharashtra and was in active Defence service, petitioner filed an application with the respondent No. 3 for a seat reserved for the children of Defence personnel. The normal procedure to be adopted by such authorities should have been that the application should have been accepted and after scrutiny, if it is found that the petitioner was not eligible, the application should have been rejected. Here in this case what happened was that the petitioner tried to file an application with respondent No. 3 but on preliminary scrutiny of the form, which was done by the officers of the respondent No. 3, they came to the conclusion that the petitioner was not eligible for admission and hence, the application itself was not accepted.