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IN THE HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY
(AURANGABAD BENCH)
Chapalgaonker N.P. Marlapalle B.H., JJ.
Suhas Bhimrao Gadhave .... Petitioner.
Versus
State of Maharashtra others.... Respondents.
Writ Petition No. 3272 of 1998, decided on 14-8-1998.
Advocates appeared :
D.R. Irale-Patil, for petitioner.
A.M. Kanade, Govt. Pleader, for respondents.
Admission to Medical and Dental Colleges Rule, 1998-99, Rule 3 and Maharashtra Universities Act (35 of 1994), Section 65-Admission Rules-Must be published six months prior to admission process Admission in Defence-1 category - Parent of applicant must be Domicile of Maharashtra State-Prima facie proof in form of Army Discharge Book Xerox copy enclosed by petitioner along with application form showing his father Domicile of State of Maharashtra and Domicile Certificate submitted later on but much before date of publication of merit list-There was sufficient compliance of Rule 3 and petitioner entitled to be considered for admission to MBBS Course for the year 199899.-First part of Rule 3 of the Admission to Medical and Dental Colleges Rules, 1998-99, mandates that for being eligible for a seat in Defence Personnel Category, the parent of such an applicant must be a Domicile of Maharashtra State and the second part of the rule states that a Domicile certificate in respect of his/her parents as issued by the District/Metropolitan Magistrate is required to be produced under Section 65 of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994. The State is mandated to publish the Admission Rules six months prior to the Admission process starting and as against this requirement, the State had published the Admission Rules, for the concerned year on 29.5.1998. By the time these rules were formulated and taken note of by students, HSC results were published and students were not left with sufficient lime, The petitioner had along with the admission form submitted on 19.6.1998 produced prima facie proof in the form of Xerox copy of Army Service Discharge Book of his father to show that his father was born in Osmanabad district and thus, a domicile of Maharashtra and in addition, had taken sufficient steps to submit a separate Domicile Certificate in respect of his father on 10.7.1998. Therefore, there was sufficient compliance, of rules and petitioner was entitled to be considered for admission to MBBS Course during the year 1998-99.
"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
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