The Supreme Court intervened in a case involving a Panipuri seller’s son who secured admission in an MBBS program. The Gujarat High Court had previously revoked his admission, citing eligibility issues related to the SEBC (Socially and Educationally Backward Classes) category.
NEW DELHI: Today (5th April): The Supreme Court stayed an order of the Gujarat High Court that upheld the cancellation of an MBBS admission of a student belonging to a reserved category. The High Court canceled the admission because the student did not qualify as a member of the Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC) in Gujarat.
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The apex court, consisting of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra said that:
The Court noted that while the petitioner’s merit was acknowledged as a general category candidate in various government medical colleges in Gujarat, the division bench determined that since the petitioner is ineligible to be considered in the SEBC category, they are also ineligible for a seat in a medical college.
Background:
The petitioner, the son of a Panipuri seller from Uttar Pradesh, had his medical admission at Government Medical College, Vadodara canceled in September 2023. The cancellation was based on the finding that his Teli subcaste did not fall under the SEBC category in Gujarat since his parents originally belonged to Uttar Pradesh, where the caste is considered part of the Other Backward Class (OBC).
On March 26, the Gujarat High Court, comprising Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee, upheld the cancellation of the petitioner’s admission. Despite acknowledging that the petitioner would have been eligible for admission in the general category list without the need for caste-based reservation, the division bench upheld its decision.
The bench emphasized that once someone claims the benefit of reservation, they must abide by it and cannot be considered for admission in the open category.
Aggrieved by the High Court’s ruling, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court through advocate Purvish Malkan. The apex court, consisting of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra, issued notices to the college, the State of Gujarat, the Medical Council of India, and Maharaja Sayaji Rao University.
“There is no question of considering you in the open category. Once someone has claimed the benefit of reservation, he has to stand by that.”
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Simultaneously, it stayed the order canceling the student’s admission, recognizing that his merit would have made him eligible for admission in several government medical colleges in Gujarat even without reservation.
