SUHAS BHIMRAO GADHAVE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD learned counsel appearing for the respective parties. Leave to amend. Amendment to be carried out forthwith. Rule , made returnable forthwith. The petitioner, represented by his father, passed his h. S. C. Exam from Latur Divisional Board and secured 570 out of 750 marks. He appeared for H. S. C. Exam from Dayanand science Junior College, Latur and secured 279 out of 300 marks in Physics, Chemistry and Biology Group. He thus secured 93% marks in H. S. C. Exam held in the year March-April 1998 and submitted his application for admission to the Medical and Dental Colleges as per the Rules for admission framed by the Government on 29th May, 1998, for the academic year 1998-1999. Along with the application, he submitted a Defence Certificate in respect of his father, in addition to the other required documents under Rules 5. 1 to 5. 3 and requested the authorities concerned to consider his application for admission to the M. B. B. S. Course against a seat reserved for Defence Personnel , on the ground that his father, who is presently working as Police Constable in osmanabad District, was in the army and had retired before he joined the State Government Service. However, along with the application form, submitted on 19-6-1998, petitioner had not attached Domicile Certificate in respect of his father and the last date for submission of the application, complete in all respect, was 20-6-1998. It appears that Domicile Certificate in respect of his father was received on 10-7-1998 and the petitioner, thereafter, immediately approached respondents Nos. 3 and 4 and requested to accept the said Domicile Certificate as part of his application, so as to consider his case for admission to M. B. B. S. Course against the seat reserved for Defence Service Personnel category. The said request was not considered. He submitted an application, by approaching the respondent No. 2 at mumbai personally on 28-7-1998, which was received by the respondent authorities at 29-7-1998 along with the Domicile certificate of his father. It is the case of the petitioner that as there was no response from the respondent authorities in respect of his above prayer, the petitioner has approached this Court invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for directions to the respondents to consider his application for admission to M. B. B. S. course against the seat reserved for Defence Service Personnel Category.

(2.) THE learned Government Pleader appearing for the respondent has opposed the petition on the ground that the rules and more particularly Rule 5 read with Annexure C of the Admission Rules for the year 1998-1999 (Hereinafter referred to as Admission Rules for short) are mandatory in nature and any application submitted till the date prescribed for receipt of the applications shall not be treated to be valid unless it is accompanied by all documents as set out in Rules 5. 1 to 5. 4 and as in the instant case, petitioner failed to submit Domicile certificate in respect of his father, as required under rule 3 of Annexure C to the Admission Rules, along with the application form submitted on 19-6-1998, the application form of the petitioner has not been considered and held to be valid by the authorities for consideration of admission to M. B. B. S. Course from seat in open category. It is further urged by the Government Pleader that sanctity of the admission Rules must be upheld and if the requirements of the rules is allowed to be diluted, the admission process to m. B. B. S. and other professional courses would not be finalised within a time bound period and any sympathetic consideration by the Courts, contrary to the admission rules, will open a Pandora s Box for litigation.

(3.) THE only question for our consideration is whether the petitioner s prayer in the instant case for a direction to consider his application in the category of Defence service Personnel requires to be accepted even though he failed to submit his father s Domicile Certificate along with the application form on 19-6-1998. We must emphasize that this Court is in full agreement with the submissions made by the learned Government Pleader, regarding the binding nature of the rules and any indulgence by this Court to water down the requirement of these rules would unnecessarily prolong the admission process and encourage unavoidable litigation. However, if we read rules 3, 4 and 5 along with the requirements as set out in Annexure C to of the Admission Rules, it is clear that the seats reserved under the Defence Service Personnel Category are to be allotted from 70% open category seats of Government Medical colleges and these seats are primarily available only to the children of parents who are Domiciles of Maharashtra , and, an exception has been carved out in Rule 5 (d) of Annexure C to the Admission Rules, stating that the requirement of domicile will not be applicable for an application being considered under Def-3 Category, which is for a son/daughter of active Defence Service Personnel transferred to the State of Maharashtra from a place outside State of maharashtra. The Def-1 category is available- for a son/daughter of Ex-defence Service Personnel and Def-2 category is available for a son/daughter of active Defence service Personnel. Petitioner s claim is for a seat reserved under Def-I Category as his father has already retired from Armed Forces. Rule 5 states that an application will be considered to be valid only if the requirements in Rule 5. 1 to 5. 4 are fulfilled. These rules state that some certificates are primary documents like S. S. C. certificate, nationality Certificate issued by the Defence Magistrate or metropolitan Magistrate, S. S. C. /h. S. C. marksheet and physical Fitness Certificate, which must accompany the application. Rule 5. 4 also stated that the application is required to be accompanied by true copies of documents listed in Annexure C. When we come to the requirement, as stated in Annexure C , we find that rule 3 reads as under :