Minor S. Vinothini vs The Secretary Selection Committee

B. Rajendran, J.—Heard Mr.S. Doraisamy, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Mr. N. Sakthivel, learned Government Advocate, who has taken notice on behalf of the respondents.

By consent, the main writ petition itself is taken up for final disposal at the admission stage.

The petitioner has come up with the present writ petition for a mandamus, directing the 1st respondent to consider the application of the petitioner under scheduled Tribe Category for the admission to the 1st year MBBS course for the academic year 2014-2015 (Application No. 263068) and admit the petitioner by accepting the sworn affidavit of the parents under the quota reserved for Scheduled Tribes without insisting upon the production of the community certificate.

According to the petitioner, she belongs to Scheduled Tribe community. Both of her father and mother are working as Secondary Grade Teacher in the Government Elementary School in Dharmapuri District and they have got valid community certificate. The petitioner applied for Community Certificate and the same is under process. According to her, she has been called for enquiry on 10.3.2014 by the RDO and she appeared in person and submitted all the documents. However, till date no order has bee passed. Therefore, the petitioner could not produce the community Certificate while applying for MBBS Degree Course. However, in the application, she has mentioned that she belongs to Scheduled Caste as her parents are having valid Community Certificate. In this connection, the learned counsel for the petitioner relied on the decision of the Division Bench of this Court in WP. No. 15116 of 2012 (Order dated 26.6.2012), wherein the Division Bench of this Court permitted the Selection Committee to treat the petitioner therein as Scheduled Caste subject to the production of the certificate at the time of admission. It is useful to extract the relevant portion of the said judgment, which reads thus:-

We have heard Mr. M.S. Ramesh, learned Additional Government Pleader. In a factual scenario like this, the procedure to be adopted has been set out in paragraph 12(10) of the Apex Court Judgment in Kumari Madhuri Patila and another Vs. Addl. Commissioner, Tribal Development and others, , viz.,

In case of any delay in finalising the proceedings, and in the meanwhile the last date for admission into an educational institution or appointment to an officer post, is getting expired, the candidate be admitted by the Principal or such other authority competent in that behalf or appointed on the basis of the social status certificate already issued or an affidavit duly sworn by the parent/guardian/candidate before the competent officer or non-official and such admission or appointment should be only provisional, subject to the result of the inquiry by the Scrutiny Committee.

In view of the above direction of the Apex Court, there will be a direction to the first respondent, Secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education, to process the application of the petitioner in Application No. 76809 to the I year M.B.B.S. Degree course under scheduled tribe category without insisting for production of community certificate, for the present. In the event the petitioner is selected on the basis of this order, the selection is only provisional and is subject to the orders that may be passed by the State Level Scrutiny Committee.

The learned Government Advocate would vehemently argue that if the petitioner has been treated as Scheduled Tribe candidate and later on, if she fails to produce the valid Community Certificate, the right of the succeeding candidate, who belongs to Scheduled Tribe and who is having valid certificate, will be deprived.

I have considered the submission made by the learned counsel on either side.

Admittedly, the petitioner''s parents are having valid Scheduled Tribe community certificate and they are working as teacher in Government School. The petitioner has also applied for community Certificate and the same is under process. In fact the petitioner has been called for enquiry and she also appeared before the authority on 10.3.2014. However, till date no order has been passed. As rightly pointed out by the learned Government Advocate, if the petitioner fails to produce such certificate, the right of the succeeding candidate will be deprived. At the same time, if the petitioner obtained a favourable order from the competent authority by getting Scheduled Tribe Community Certificate, definitely she will be entitled to get the seat under the Scheduled Tribe Quota.

Therefore, it is suffice to give a direction to the authority to treat the petitioner as General candidate till the certificate issued by the competent authority has been produced by her. If the petitioner only produce the valid certificate issued by the competent authority before the commencement of second counseling, she can treated as Scheduled Tribe candidate and the random No. should be given under the Scheduled Tribe Quota. It is made clear that the petitioner should produce the valid certificate issued by the competent authority before the commencement of the second counseling.

With the above observation and direction, the writ petition is disposed of. No costs. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petition is closed.