The main legal point established in the judgment is that the provisions of Section 4A(2) of the Maharashtra Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Category Classes and Special Backward Category(Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Act, 2000 should be interpreted to excuse non-performance of producing the validity certificate before the specified date if it becomes impossible to do so.

JUDGMENT :

A.S. Chandurkar, J.

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and heard the learned counsel for the parties.

2. The petitioner who is a student has obtained Diploma in Polytechnic. He was admitted in the second year of Bachelor of Engineering (BE) (Civil) course in the academic session 2018-2019. Since the petitioner claimed that he belongs to ‘Kunbi’ Other Backward Class (OBC) category, he had sought verification of his caste claim by making an application in that regard on 13.07.2018 to the Scrutiny Committee. When that process was pending the petitioner through the Admissions Regulating Authority-respondent no.2 was granted admission at the respondent no.5-College affiliated with the respondent no.4-University. On 27.12.2018 the Joint Director of Technical Education informed the Principals of all the concerned colleges in Nagpur Division that deficiencies in the admission forms of the students who were admitted for the academic session 2018-2019 be directed to be removed by 31.12.2018. Insofar as the College where the petitioner was admitted, the Admissions Regulating Authority (ARA) on 11.01.2019 informed the College that such discrepancies in respect of two students including the petitioner had not been removed. It was stated that the receipt of the application made for obtaining a caste validity certificate was not submitted. The petitioner was issued a validity certificate by the Scrutiny Committee on 19.03.2019 which was after the cut off date 31.08.2018. Though the validity certificate was submitted to the College where the petitioner was admitted, his admission against a seat reserved for OBC category was not regularised. In that backdrop, the petitioner has filed present writ petition seeking regularisation of his admission and permission to appear in the subsequent examinations conducted by the University.

3. Shri N.C.Phadnis, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that as required by the provisions of Section 4A of the Maharashtra Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Category Classes and Special Backward Category(Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Act, 2000 (for short, the said Act) the petitioner had made an application for issuance of validity certificate to the Scrutiny Committee and alongwith his application form a receipt in that regard was duly submitted. An application for caste validity certificate was made on 13.07.2018 while the scrutiny form for seeking admission was submitted on 13.08.2018 alongwith a copy of the receipt. The State Common Entrance Test Cell on 18.08.2018 granted admission to the petitioner after considering the declaration given by the College that it had verified the petitioner’s identity. All this was done prior to the cut off date which was 30.08.2018. By virtue of an interim order passed in the writ petition, the petitioner had appeared in the subsequent examinations but his results were not being declared for the reason that his admission had not been regularised. According to the learned counsel, since all steps that could be possibly taken by the petitioner as a student had been taken, he could not be faulted for having received the validity certificate after the specified date. The petitioner having pursued and completed his education, his results ought to be declared by treating his admission to be regularised. During all this period, the College or the Competent Authority did not proceed to cancel the petitioner’s admission by acting under the provisions of Section 4A(3) of the said Act. Hence the petitioner was entitled to the benefit of the education taken by him. It was prayed that the petitioner was entitled to grant of reliefs as prayed for.

4. Shri N. S. Khubalkar, learned counsel appearing for the State Common Entrance Test Cell opposed the aforesaid submissions. According to him, even if the petitioner had made an application for issuance of validity certificate to the Scrutiny Committee