In an interim relief, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order of the Gujarat High Court that cancelled the admission of a panipuri seller’s son at a medical college following a dispute over his caste certificate. With the stay, the MBBS student can be readmitted to the course and can continue with his studies for the time being.
A division bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra granted interim relief to MBBS student Alpeshkumar Rathod and issued notice to the state and college authorities.
On March 26, a division bench of the Gujarat High Court had cast aspersions on the validity of the student’s Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC) category certificate and had upheld the cancellation of admission by the Admission Committee for Professional Medical Educational Courses and the Government Medical College at Vadodara. The HC had then observed that an exception cannot be made out for a student and rule of law has to prevail.
Rathod, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, but now with domicile status of Gujarat, was granted provisional admission subject to verification of documents. Claiming to be from ‘Teli’ sub-caste, which is classified as an SEBC category in Gujarat, the student had submitted a caste certificate dated August 20, 2018. However, following a scrutiny, the admission committee had cancelled the caste certificate terming it to be “incorrect” as he did not belong to the Teli caste of SEBC community in Gujarat, but rather to Teli — an OBC category in Uttar Pradesh. The cancellation was not challenged by Rathod.
With the caste certificate cancelled, his admission, too, was discontinued by the Government Medical College at Vadodara, affiliated to MSU, in September 2023.
The student then moved the High Court seeking his admission be reinstated by shifting his category from SEBC to general category as he had secured a good rank in the open category of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) and hence, was eligible to be admitted to a medical college.
A single judge order of the High Court had permitted the same by exercising extraordinary jurisdiction, on grounds of equity. The single judge’s order was then challenged by the admission committee of the college before a division bench of the HC. The High Court overturned the single judge’s order and upheld the cancellation.
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