Dhangar girl denied MBBS seat over Admission processes gains HC favour

Panaji: The "inflexibility of educational admission processes" has made a Dhangar community girl miss an MBBS admission opportunity is an observation that has been made by Justices Nutan Sardessai and G S Patel of the High Court of Bombay at Goa.

The court has given a directive to the Goa Medical College to admit her in the 2016-17 batch instead of letting a vacant seat to lapse.

The petitioner, Punam Zore of the Dhangar community and is one of the five daughters born to a daily wage labourer who earns not more than Rs 3000, a month. The family is from a village in Dave-Tar Valpoi.

Punam did reasonably well in the XII standard science examination and also in the Common Entrance Test conducted by the State for preparing a merit list for professional degree courses.

Punam thereafter applied for admission to the MBBS course in 2016-2017 and was shortlisted in the merit list at number 38.

GMC, however, had a total of 34 seats for reservation in that year in the OBC category and several students listed from nos 1 to 34 had opted for other courses.

Soniya Dongrekar who was the last student in the merit list of OBC candidates was at nos 37 just above Punam in the merit list.

The High Court observed that Neha Gouli (respondent no 8) a student placed at serial no 21 in the merit list was staking a claim to admission in the reserved OBC category.

This claim, it is said, was false as it was on the basis of a fake birth certificate. It was observed that the respondent no 8 had given up on her admission ever since.

The High Court on observation stated that the seat vacated by respondent no 8 could have been made available to Punam.

“It would be heaping injustice on inequity if, given her background, and given that there is a vacancy, Punam was to be denied the course on the ground that the seat had lapsed. We find it disturbing and that is putting it mildly” Justices G S Patel and Nutan Sardesai said in their order.

The court further clarified, “It is for this reason that we say this case is an exception and is in no way a rule. It can never serve as a precedent. We are laying down no law. We are adjusting an equity in the exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution”.

“Punam Zore will have to make up for the lost time. We will allow her to do so and afford her the opportunity and wish her well in her journey in the hope that if she does succeed, we will be content in having a small role in that success” the High Court ruled while directing that the GMC admits her as a student in the first year of the ongoing batch for the year 2016-2017 reports Navhind Times.