The main legal point established in the judgment is that the reservation for NRI seats in government autonomous colleges was intended for individuals actually living abroad and not for those who are NRI for the purpose of Income Tax only. The requirement to produce a certificate from the concerned Embassy was necessary to establish NRI status for the purpose of admission under the NRI quota.

Judgment:

M.C. Garg, J.

1. By this writ petition, the petitioner is aggrieved by the action of the respondents whereby, after including the petitioner in the merit under NRI quota, the respondents published a 2nd merit list delisting the name of the petitioner as well as similarly situated candidate in spite of her being eligible for the said seat on the basis of merit as well as NRI status on the ground that the petitioner could not produce the relevant NRI certificate from the Indian Embassy as a proof of her father's NRI status as per the condition prescribed by the respondent No. 1 for taking admission for the relevant NRI seats. After filing of the aforesaid writ petition, the petitioner impleaded respondent Nos. 4 to 7, who are the students and who were selected under NRI quota but having lesser percentage on the plea that any decision in this matter may affect the interest of those students. The respondent Nos. 4, 5 and 6 were directed to be served through the Dean of the concerned college. The respondents were duly served through the Dean for which, an affidavit along with the service report has been placed on record by the petitioner dated 25-8-2014.

2. Insofar as the respondent No. 7 is concerned, at the outset, it has been submitted by the learned Counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner under instructions would not claim any benefit with respect to the seat allotted to the respondent No. 7 even if, an adverse order was passed against the said respondent. As far as the respondent Nos. 4 and 6 are concerned, even though, served through the Dean of the college have not caused appearance.

3. The short facts of this case as pleaded by the petitioner are:--

"(i) That, the petitioner in response to the advertisement dated 13-6-2014 issued by the respondent No. 2 inviting applications for admission on NRI seats in MBBS/BDS course in Govt. Autonomous Medical Colleges, in Bhopal/Indore/Gwalior/Rewa/Sagar and Dental Colleges, Indore for the academic year 2014, being eligible for NRI status as her father who is Captain in Merchant Navy is holding NRI status as per Income Tax Act, 1961 applied for admission.

(ii) On inviting for counseling petitioner submitted all the relevant documents in physical form including the proof as to the status of her father as NRI. After scrutiny of the documents, she was placed at third place in the merit list published under NRI quota. But on the next day the list was cancelled and other merit list was published and the name of the petitioner and a similarly situated candidate was delisted. On enquiry the reason assigned by the respondent No. 2 that as per the condition for eligibility the petitioner was required to produce a certificate from the Indian Embassy regarding her father's NRI status. The father of the petitioner working in Merchant Navy is not entitled to such a certificate even though he is a NRI as per the legal definition. The father of the petitioner objected to this condition as being unreasonable and requested that his daughter's case may kindly be considered. The respondents did not accept the application of the petitioner on the ground that she has not produced a certificate of NRI status from the Embassy and thus, she is ineligible for admission. That, being aggrieved by this, the petitioner is filing this petition."

4. According to the learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner, action of the respondents in not having treated her father as NRI even though, he is fully qualified to be considered as NRI under the Income Tax Act, is not sustainable. It is submitted that, the condition for submission of NRI certificate issued by the Indian Embassy only, as a proof of NRI status of the applicants in arbitrary, and discriminatory since it does not provide for a case where the petitioner is not entitled to such a document from the Embassy although they are having NRI status as per the applicable laws. The impugned condition is thus discriminatory since the applicants who are wards of