Allowed

Aryan S/O Naresh Shende v. State of Maha., Thr. Principal Secretary, Higher and Technical Education Dept., Mumbai and Ors.

Bombay HC3 Oct 2024WP/5536/2024

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Petitioner admitted in Round-I denied seat for missing original caste certificate despite validity cert. Benches allowed petition, finding hyer-technical denial illegal. Ordered college to admit petitioner on supernumerary seat for 2024-25.

What did the court decide?

Writ of mandamus directing the college to activated a supernumerary seat and confirm petitioner's admission in Computer Science and Engineering for Academic Year 2024-2025.

Aryan S/O Naresh Shende Vs State of Maha., Thr… — Writ and Judicial Review | Bombay HC (2024)

¶1

2024:BHC-NAG:11161-DB

¶2

1 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶3

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR

¶4

Writ Petition No.5536 of 2024

¶5

Aryan S/o Naresh Shende,

¶6

Age: 20 years, Occupation: Student,
Address: 561- Anand Nagar,
Rani Durgavati Nagar, Nagpur, Maharashtra.

¶7

… Petitioner

¶8

Versus

¶9

1.The State of Maharashtra,
Through Principal Secretary,
Higher and Technical Education Department,
Mantralaya, Mumbai-400032.

¶10

2.The Commissioner,
State Common Entrance Test Cell,
Maharashtra State,
8th Floor, New Excelsior Building,
A.K. Nayak Marg, Fort,
Mumbai-400001.

¶11

3. Karamveer Dadasaheb Kannamwar (K.D.K.)

¶12

Engineer College,
Nagpur,
Through its Principal and Admission Cell,
Great Nag Road, Nandanvan,
Nagpur-440009.

¶13

… Respondents

¶14

Ms Ayushi Mishra, Counsel for Petitioner.

¶15

Mr. Sushil Ghodeswar, Assistant Government Pleader for Respondent No.1.
Mr. Nikhil Gaikwad, Counsel for Respondent No.2.
Mr. Kaustubh Patil, Counsel for Respondent No.3.

¶16

CORAM : BHARATI DANGRE AND ABHAY J. MANTRI, JJ.

¶17

 DATE: 3rd OCTOBER, 2024

¶18

JUDGMENT (PER : BHARATI DANGRE, J.) :

¶19

1.Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Respective counsel waives

¶20

service of notice of hearing for the respondents. Heard finally by consent

¶21

of the learned counsel for the parties.

¶22

2 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶23

2.Being aggrieved by the alleged high-handed action on the part of
the respondent Nos.2 and 3 in denying a seat to the petitioner in the
respondent No.3, Karamveer Dadasaheb Kannamwar (K.D.K.) Engineering
College, Nagpur on a flimsy ground of non-production of the caste
certificate, and despite a genuine cause being shown by the petitioner, the
petitioner has approached this Court seeking the following reliefs :

¶24

“A.That, by passing a suitable writ, order or direction in the
nature of Mandamus, directing the Respondent no.3 to comply with
conditions put up by Respondent no.2 and accordingly confirm the
admission of Petitioner along with grant him additional time to
produce original caste certificate.

¶25

B.Further be please to Grant Stay to the effect and operation of
admission procedure of Cap Round I as there are possibilities that
the Respondent no.3 is lightly to allow admission to other
candidates as to complete the quota of Cap Round I and that
Petitioner no.1 may lost his seat and there will be a drastic loss of
whole year in his career life.”

¶26

The petition is filed by one Aryan Naresh Shende, who participated

¶27

in the process initiated by the State Common Entrance Test Cell of the
Government of Maharashtra for filling up of the seats for Full Time
Professional Under Graduate Course annexed with the Information
Brochure published for admissions for the Academic Year 2024-2025.

¶28

The petitioner applied for the MHT-CET 2024 for securing admission
in an Engineering Course in the State of Maharashtra and participated in

¶29

3 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶30

the Centralized Admission Process (CAP) and was allotted his first
preference College, i.e. Karamveer Dadasaheb Kannamwar (K.D.K.)
Engineering College, Nagpur in the first round, as his score in the
CET made him entitled to the seat in the said College on the basis of his
merit.

¶31

According to the petitioner, as per the Rules of CAP, he opted for the
‘Auto Freeze’ option, effectively closing the possibility of participation in
the subsequent CAP Rounds, as he was satisfied with the allotment of the
College and the stream, which he was desirous of pursuing and therefore,
he confirmed his admission online and also completed the requisite
process by uploading the necessary documents on the web portal.
However, the College denied the admission on the ground that the
petitioner was unable to produce the original caste certificate, despite the
fact that he was possessing the caste validity certificate and submitted a
self-declaration undertaking to provide the original caste certificate by the
CAP Round-III.

¶32

The grievance of the petitioner is that he was denied admission on
the seat which was allotted to him in the CAP Round-I and he was even
prevented from participating in the subsequent rounds which has put his
career to risk, by ignoring his merit and entitlement.

¶33

4 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶34

3.We have heard the learned counsel Ms Ayushi Mishra for the
petitioner, who faced opposition from the learned counsel Mr. Nikhil
Gaikwad representing the Commissioner, State Common Entrance Test
Cell, Maharashtra State, and the learned counsel Mr. Kaustubh Patil
representing the K.D.K. Engineering College, Nagpur.

¶35

The State of Maharashtra, Higher and Technical Education is
represented by the learned Assistant Government Pleader
Mr. Sushil Ghodeswar.

¶36

We have garnered the facts from the petition which contains the
necessary pleadings in respect of the reliefs sought therein, which is
accompanied with the necessary annexures in support thereof.

¶37

The K.D.K. Engineering College, Nagpur, i.e. the respondent No.3,
has also filed its affidavit-in-reply, which is accompanied with the copy of
Information Brochure published by the respondent No.2 and also the
correspondence entered between the respondent No.3 as well as the
respondent No.2.

¶38

The respondent No.2, Commissioner of State Entrance Test Cell has
also filed an affidavit on 24th September, 2024, wherein it is tried to be
suggested that the petitioner has approached this Court only upon
conclusion of the CAP Round-III, when the Institutional Level Round has

¶39

5 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶40

begun and the petitioner chose not to participate in the Institutional Level
Round.

¶41

Ms Ayushi Mishra, learned counsel for the petitioner, has also
submitted her written submissions on 30th September, 2024, reiterating
the reliefs sought by the petitioner in the writ petition and contradicting
the stand adopted by the respondent Nos.2 and 3, in an attempt to deny
the legitimate right of the petitioner of being admitted in a Institution of
his choice, based on his merit.

¶42

4.From the sequence of dates and events placed before us, we have
taken note of some undisputed facts :

¶43

(a)The petitioner, who appeared for the MHT-CET, secured a percentile
score of 76.0337773 when the result was declared on 16th June, 2024,
indicative that the seat secured is valid for the Academic Year 2024-2025.
(b)On participating in the admission process for the Ist Year Decree in
Engineering/Technology Admissions 2024, the petitioner was provisionally
allotted a seat in the K.D.K. College of Engineering, Nagpur in Computer
Science and Engineering based on his merit percentile.

¶44

(c)His candidature type was reflected as Maharashtra-A and the
category for admission was shown as ‘SC’. The seat type allotted to him
was GSCH (Home University General SC).

¶45

(d)The provisional allotment in CAP Round-I in favour of the petitioner,
upon acceptance of the seat being confirmed by him on 16th August, 2024,
resulted in ‘Auto Freezing’.

¶46

6 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶47

5.At this stage, we must also take note of the provision in the
Information Brochure, which govern the admissions to the Under
Graduate and Post Graduate Technical Courses for 2024-2025, which
clearly prescribes that the allotment of CAP Rounds-I, II and III of the
Home University seats, other than the Home University Seats and State
Level Seats will be carried out as ‘inter-se merit’ of the candidates having
Maharashtra State Candidature and the seats are to be allotted to
candidates as per inter se merit, options filled and the seats available at
that point of time in the stage of CAP Rounds-I, II and III.

¶48

Clause 12 of the Information Brochure for Admission to Under
Graduate and Post Graduate Technical Courses (2024-25) contemplate as

¶49

under :

¶50

“12. General provisions

¶51

(a) Allotment in CAP Rounds-I, II and III of Home University
Seats, Other than Home University seats and State Level Seats
will be carried out as per Inter-Se-Merit of Candidates having
Maharashtra State Candidature. The seats will be allotted to
Candidates as per Inter-Se-Merit, options filled and seats
available at that point of time in the state of CAP Rounds-I, II
and III;

¶52

(g) Allotment against the first available option in the order of
preference filled in shall be retained as final allotment;

¶53

(h) The allotment list displayed on website shall show the
provisional allotment offered to the candidates. No personal
communication or allotment letters in this regard shall be
issued to the Candidates;

¶54

(i)A candidate who has been allotted a seat shall download
the “Provisional Seat Allotment Letter”. At the time of seat

¶55

7 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶56

acceptance, candidate has to pay seat acceptance fees through
online mode or can be paid at the time of carrying out self
scrutiny of the document uploaded in online application system
or by a demand draft in favour of the Competent Authority at
the Admission Reporting Centre. Seat shall be confirmed by the
Reporting Centre after verification of the original documents
and ensuring that the Candidate meets all the eligibility norms
or has carried out self scrutiny of the document uploaded in
online application system, the Online Receipt of acceptance
shall be issued by the centre in-charge or by online mode;

¶57

(k) Failure to report for seat acceptance shall be considered as
if the Candidate has rejected the offer;

¶58

(j)Allotted Seat shall be cancelled if, at any time, any of t he
document or certificate is found to be invalid or fraudulent
and/or the candidate does not meet the eligibility norms.”

¶59

6.It is a specific case of the petitioner that since he auto-freezed his
seat in the respondent No.3-College on 16th August, 2024, he was to report
to the respondent No.3-College between 16th August and

¶60

18th August, 2024, as the second round of counselling was to commence
from 19th August, 2024.

¶61

The petitioner appeared before the respondent No.3-College on
17th August, 2024 for physical verification of documents as per CAP
Process.

¶62

The respondent No.3-College do not dispute that it denied the
admission to the petitioner, as he was unable to produce the original caste
certificate and it is a specific stand adopted by the College that it was not
empowered/authorized to relax the condition to verify the original

¶63

8 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶64

documents, at the Institutional Level nor was it empowered to extend the
time for verification of the original documents.

¶65

7.The specific case of the petitioner, as pleaded before us, is that the
petitioner appeared before the respondent No.3-College with all necessary
documents in original, which included the certificate of validity accorded
in his favour on 7th September, 2022 by the District Caste Certificates
Scrutiny Committee, certifying him to be belonging to ‘Chambhar’
(Scheduled Caste) but as was not armed with the caste certificate, he
adopted a stand, that he had lost the same, when a file containing his
educational documents, i.e. 10th and 12th mark sheets, domicile, caste
certificate, caste validity, Aadhar, 12th Standard T.C. and academic results
of his graduation was lost on 25th June, 2024 from Borivili Market Road,
Mumbai and he reported about this loss to DS Brihan Mumbai Police.

¶66

According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, he downloaded
the caste validity certificate and got it certified, but as far as the caste
certificate is concerned, he applied for duplicate caste certificate on
27th June, 2024 itself and produced a receipt of the application preferred
to the Competent Authority for the same.

¶67

The receipt of payment to the Government through SETU
dated 27th June, 2024 is also produced on record for securing the domicile
certificate as well as the caste certificate.

¶68

9 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶69

She has canvassed before us that once again on 19th August, 2024,
an application was preferred for the second time for procuring the
duplicate caste certificate by paying the requisite fee and in fact on
26th September, 2024, the petitioner received the caste certificate, which
has been placed on record along with the pursis.

¶70

8.When the petitioner was unable to produce the caste certificate, as
required in terms of Rule 17 of the Information Brochure, which enlisted
the documents required to be uploaded along with ‘Application Form for
Centralized Admission Process’, and as far as backward class candidates
belonging to SC/ST are concerned, are required to produce the caste/tribe
certificate as well as the caste/tribe validity certificate depending upon the
category to which they belong.

¶71

It is not in dispute that the petitioner produced the validity
certificate and also complied with the requirement of submission of other
documents in original, including the SSC mark sheet, HSC mark sheet,
qualifying examination mark sheet, school leaving certificate, etc. Barring
the caste certificate, the petitioner was able to produce all other
documents required for completion of the admission process, in original,
but he was declined the admission, as he was unable to produce the
original caste validity certificate.

¶72

10 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶73

9.The respondent No.3 on being confronted with such a scenario,
entered into correspondence with the respondent No.2 seeking guidance
by informing that one of the students during verification of the documents
had disclosed that he has lost the original documents and therefore a
query was raised as to whether the student should be admitted without
the document.

¶74

Such query being raised on 17th August, 2024 at 11.00.20 a.m.
received a response from the respondent No.2 to the following effect :

¶75

“Dear Institute, Kindly refer to page number 73 of the Information
Brochure and take decision accordingly.”

¶76

10.The respondent No.3-College was thus directed to follow the

¶77

imperative mandate set out in the Information Brochure, which
contemplated thus :

¶78

“(5) Reporting at institutes:

¶79

i.Candidate shall confirm the admission by paying the
requisite amount of fee and by submitting required documents
in original to respective institute, to which admission is granted
as per schedule.

¶80

ii.If a candidate fails to substantiate the claims made at the
time of submitting necessary original documents within the
reporting time for CAP Round, the candidate forfeits the claim
on the allotted seat.

¶81

iii.If a candidate is unable to produce original certificates at
the itme of his/her admission on account of admission already
secured to some other institution, he or she shall produce a
certificate from the Head of the institution where he/she has

¶82

11 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶83

already taken admission indicating that he/she has been
admitted to a particular course in that institution on a particular
date and hence original certificates have been retained in that
institution. The candidate shall produce the attested copies of
the certificates duly attested by the Head of the concerned
institution. Such candidates shall be required to pay the fees
immediately at the time of admission and such candidates shall
be permitted to submit the required original certificates within
04 working days after the date of payment of fees.

¶84

The respondent No.3 thus, acted accordingly and refused
confirmation of the provisional admission in favour of the petitioner.

¶85

11.The difficulty posed by the petitioner is that since he had auto
freezed his seat in the respondent No.3-College, he was not permitted to
participate in the subsequent rounds, i.e. CAP Rounds-II and III, the
second round commenced on 19th August, 2024, whereas the third round
commenced on 6th September, 2024 and was over by 9th September, 2024.

¶86

The respondent No.3 has adopted a stand in the affidavit that the
schedule for filling the vacant seats after the CAP Rouds-I, II and III from
10th September, 2024 to 13th September, 2024, which was extended till
15th September, 2024, the petitioner did not apply for the vacant seats,
which were allotted as per the procedure on 13th September, 2024 and a
stand is adopted that no seats are vacant as on date. It is worth to note
that on one hand the respondent No.3-College had adopted a stand that
once the seat allotted to the petitioner was auto freezed, there was no

¶87

12 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶88

scope of participating in the subsequent rounds, then in any case, there
was no question for the petitioner to apply for the vacant seats.

¶89

What the petitioner is desirous of is the allocation of a seat as per
merit, which in fact was allotted to him, but because of his failure to
produce the caste certificate in original, though he has received a
certificate validating his caste by the Caste Scrutiny Committee, which was
produced by him, on hyper-technical ground, the respondent No.3 refused
to confirm his provisional admission.

¶90

12.The petitioner filed the present petition on 6th September, 2023 and
on 13th September, 2024, the learned counsel representing the respondent
No.2 sought time to file reply.

¶91

Noting the case of the petitioner that he has lost his caste certificate,
and recording the argument advanced on behalf of the respondent No.2
that the petitioner had an opportunity to raise the grievance as the date of
production of documents was 9th September, 2024 and the seat has not
been allotted, this Court passed the order on 13th September, 2024, which
read thus :

¶92

“5)The above facts will have to be placed on record and the Rule
directing production of caste certificate even though caste validity
certificate is produced will also have to be examined. If the
Petitioner’s admission is already not cancelled, then time given to
the Petitioner to produce the caste certificate stands extended to
24 September 2024.”

¶93

13 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶94

13.On 20th September, 2024, the following order was passed :

¶95

“ Heard the learned counsel for the parties.

¶96

2.In spite of order dated 13th September, 2024 and
adjournment of 20th September, 2024, the respondent no.2 has
chosen not to file an affidavit in the matter.

¶97

3.We have already recorded that the petitioner’s candidature
for his admission to the Engineering Course was cancelled on the
ground that he has failed to produce the caste certificate though he
has produced the validity certificate.

¶98

4.We were expecting the serious and sensitive approach on the
part of the respondent no.2 in finding out the solution to the issue
as, prima facie, we were of the view that the petitioner cannot be
blamed for non compliance viz. non production of caste certificate
when he already holds and produced the validity certificate.

¶99

5.We have given chance to the respondent no.2 during the
course of the day as in the first half we had heard the matter.
However, till this time, the respondent no.2 has chosen not to
report any concrete solution to the problem created by itself in the
matter of the cancellation of candidature of the petitioner.

¶100

6.The aforesaid act on the part of the respondent no.2, in our
opinion, results into the petitioner losing a specious academic year
and that too because of hyper-technical approach on the part of the
respondent no.2.

¶101

7.The only excuse coming forth from the respondent no.2 is
that the portal was closed on 09.09.2024 and only Institutional
round was operational till 15.09.2024 to which the petitioner has
not given any option. At this stage, the learned Counsel for the
respondent no.2 has placed the position of the vacant seats
available in Nagpur region and it is submitted that if so opted for
the petitioner can be accommodated against any of the seats, which
are shown vacant.

¶102

8.The learned Counsel for the petitioner seeks time till Monday
to make the statement.

¶103

9. Stand over to 23.09.2024.”

¶104

14 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶105

14.On 27th September, 2024, the reply was filed by the respondent No.2
and the matter was directed to be listed on 30th September, 2024 and it
was closed for orders and we have pronounced the decision on
3rd October, 2024.

¶106

15.As far as the respondent No.2 is concerned, it is not disputed that
the petitioner had earlier referred to the police complaint lodged by him
on 25th June, 2024, but surprisingly it adopted a stand by stating as
follows :

¶107

“8.That the petitioner has uploaded his scanned original caste
validity and caste certificate as per the activity schedule point no.2
At this juncture it is relevant to state here that the petitioner had
earlier stated about the police complaint lodged by him dated
25/06/2024 stating that he has lost his original caste validity as well
as caste certificate and other documents. This very fact makes it
crystal clear that the petitioner has suppressed the reality of his
documents pertaining to his caste, because during 15.7.2024 to
31.7.2024 the Petitioner has uploaded his documents after scanning
them from originals. That means the Petitioner has original
documents during 15.7.2024 upto 31.07.2024 with him. Then the
question arises why the Petitioner has lied at the time of verification
of original documents at Respondent no.3/College.”

¶108

The affidavit also contains the following averment :

¶109

“12. It is submitted that the last date of the C.A.P. round 3 was
09/09/2023. Unfortunately, when the petitioner approached this
Hon’ble Court i.e. on 13/09/2024 the CAP process and from
10.9.2023 onwards the ACAP and institutional level round had
began.

¶110

13. The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) being the Apex authority decides the academic calendar for the students.

¶111

15 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶112

The last upto which 1st year students can be admitted against
vacancies for the academic year 2024-2025 are also decided by the
AICTE. It is submitted that as per the Schedule for first y ear
admissions in B.E. through CAP round 09/09/2024 was the last date
and 15/09/2024 was the last date for completion of admission
process for B.E. from institutional level round. The said activity
schedule was published by the answering respondent on the website
for the reference of the candidates.”

¶113

In Paragraph 15 of the affidavit, the respondent No.2 has placed on
record the copy of list of Institutes showing vacancy in reserved category
and this includes two Colleges in Wardha and one College in Chandrapur
in Nagpur Region and when specifically enquired from the petitioner, as to
whether he is ready to accept the admission offered to him in these
Colleges, we have received an answer in the negative.

¶114

16.In the whole background scenario presented before us, the position
which emerged, as on date, is that the petitioner has received a caste
certificate on 26th September, 2024, in duplicate.

¶115

We must reiterate that the petitioner produced a caste validity
certificate before the respondent No.3-College and this certificate of
validity clearly refers to the Caste Certificate bearing No.2944/MRC-
81/2017-2018 dated 16th April, 2018, issued by the Sub-Divisional Officer,
Katol, District Nagpur certifying that Aryan Naresh Shende belong to
‘Chambhar (11) caste/tribe’ and this is found to be ‘VALID’.

¶116

16 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶117

Once the petitioner has received a certificate of validity from the
Competent Authority empowered to validate upon the caste certificate, in
our opinion, it was too hyper-technical on the part of the respondent
Nos.2 and 3 to insist upon the production of the caste certificate in
original, when the petitioner had made it clear that he had lost the
documents and he had also lodged a complaint to the concerned Police
Station long back ago and had preferred an application through SETU,
a portal for obtaining the necessary documents, by paying the necessary
fee as early as on 27th June, 2024, but unfortunately did not receive the
documents.

¶118

In any case, when the time to produce the caste validity certificate is
given in the admission process of engineering till the last CAP Round, we
fail to understand why the respondent Nos.2 and 3 deemed it fit to cancel
the provisional admission of the petitioner at the stage of first round, as it
is not uncommon that the validity certificates are permitted to be
produced till the last round of CAP Process or even at times, the
Government has extended the benefit of production of the validity
certificates, at a later point of time, when it has become impossible for the
Caste Scrutiny Committee to undertake the exercise of validation of the
caste claim, for the reason, not attributed to the candidate.

¶119

17 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶120

The petitioner landed himself in a fix, as he had auto-freezed the
seat based upon the preference and his merit and he was not therefore
allowed to move forward for betterment and hence found himself stuck.

¶121

17.We do not appreciate the approach of the respondent Nos.2 and 3 in
denying him his legal entitlement, completely based on his own merits by
adopting a hyper-technical approach, which has resulted into, a counter
productive result.

¶122

The question before us is what remedial measure can offer solace to
the petitioner, so that his legal entitlement is not defeated.

¶123

Recently in the case of Vansh s/o Prakash Dolas Versus Ministry of
Education and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and others1, the
Apex Court, in a scenario, found no justification in rejecting the claim of
the appellant and while setting aside the communication issued by the
College cancelling the admission granted to him against the Maharashtra
Quota in CAP Round-I without giving an opportunity to show cause,
found it to be illegal and arbitrary and faced the hurdle as the current
session of MBBS Course had progressed significantly and more than six
months had passed, since the session started and no seat was lying vacant
in any College in Maharashtra State Quota as on date.

¶124

Since an opinion was formed that the appellant was illegally

¶125

deprived from his rightful admission in the first year of the MBBS Course 1 2024 AIR(SC) 1924

¶126

18 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶127

owing to the insensitive, unjust, illegal and arbitrary approach of the
respondents and also on account of the delay occasioned in the judicial
process, the restitutive relief as conceptualized in Manoj Kumar Versus
Union of India and others2was resorted to and we must reproduce the
relevant reproduction in the decision in Vansh s/o Prakash Dolas (supra),
which read as below :

¶128

“27. This Court in the case of S. Krishna Sradha v. State of Andhra
Pradesh and Others4 examined the issue of wrongful denial of
admission in a medical course, and propounded the theory of
‘restitutive justice’ by holding as below:-

¶129

“13. In the light of the discussion/observations made
hereinabove, a meritorious candidate/student who has been
denied an admission in MBBS course illegally or irrationally
by the authorities for no fault of his/her and who has
approached the Court in time and so as to see that such a
meritorious candidate may not have to suffer for no fault of
his/her, we answer the reference as under:

¶130

13.1.That in a case where candidate/student has approached
the court at the earliest and without any delay and that the
question is with respect to the admission in medical course all
the efforts shall be made by the court concerned to dispose of
the proceedings by giving priority and at the earliest.

¶131

13.2.Under exceptional circumstances, if the court finds that
there is no fault attributable to the candidate and the
candidate has pursued his/her legal right expeditiously
without any delay and there is fault only on the part of the
authorities and/or there is apparent breach of rules and
regulations as well as related principles in the process of
grant of admission which would violate the right of equality
and equal treatment to the competing candidates and if the
time schedule prescribed - 30th September, is over, to do the
complete justice, the Court under exceptional circumstances

¶132

2 2024 SCC OnLine SC 163 4 (2017) 4 SCC 516

¶133

19 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶134

and in rarest of rare cases direct the admission in the same
year by directing to increase the seats, however, if should not
be more than one or two seats and such admissions can be
ordered within reasonable time, i.e. within one month from
30th September, i.e. cut off date and under no circumstances,
the Court shall order any Admission in the same year beyond
30th October. However, it is observed that such relief can be
granted only in exceptional circumstances and in the rarest of
rare cases. In case of such an eventuality, the Court may also
pass an order cancelling the admission given to a candidate
who is at the bottom of the merit list of the category who, if
the admission would have been given to a more meritorious
candidate who has been denied admission illegally, would not
have got the admission, if the Court deems it fit and proper,
however, after giving an opportunity of hearing to a student
whose admission is sought to be cancelled.

¶135

13.3.In case the Court is of the opinion that no relief of
admission can be granted to such a candidate in the very
academic year and wherever it finds that the action of the
authorities has been arbitrary and in breach of the rules and
regulations or the prospectus affecting the rights of the
students and that a candidate is found to be meritorious and
such candidate/student has approached the court at the
earliest and without any delay, the court can mould the relief
and direct the admission to be granted to such a candidate in
the next academic year by issuing appropriate directions by
directing to increase in the number of seats as may be
considered appropriate in the case and in case of such an
eventuality and if it is found that the management was at
fault and wrongly denied the admission to the meritorious
candidate, in that case, the Court may direct to reduce the
number of seats in the management quota of that year,
meaning thereby the student/students who was/were denied
admission illegally to be accommodated in the next academic
year out of the seats allotted in the management quota.

¶136

13.4.Grant of the compensation could be an additional
remedy but not a substitute for restitutional remedies.
Therefore, in an appropriate case the Court may award the

¶137

20 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶138

compensation to such a meritorious candidate who for no
fault of his/her has to lose one full academic year and who
could not be granted any relief of admission in the same
academic year.

¶139

13.5.It is clarified that the aforesaid directions pertain to
Admission in MBBS Course only and we have not dealt with
post graduate medical course.”

¶140

18.By relying upon the aforesaid observations, their Lordships of the
Apex Court noted that due to passage of time, it would neither be
desirable nor justifiable to grant admission to the appellant in the
on-going session of the MBBS(UG) course. However, considering the fact
that the order cancelling the admission of the appellant was issued on 9th
August, 2023 and the writ petition came to be filed before the High Court
promptly, i.e. on 10th August, 2023, without any delay whatsoever, the
appellant was held entitled to restoration of his seat in the first year of
MBBS (UG) course in the same college in the next session,
i.e. NEET UG-2024.

¶141

19.In the present case, since we have already reached a conclusion that
the petitioner was wrongfully denied the admission in the respondent
No.3-College by adopting a hyper-technical approach, we must definitely
offer a solution to prevent the loss to the petitioner, as the petitioner is not
at fault and even he approached this Court on 6th September, 2024,
i.e. before the last date of CAP Round-III, which was 9th September, 2023,

¶142

21 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶143

and this Court by taking cognizance passed necessary orders, to which we
have already made a reference.

¶144

The last date for admission to Four-Year Under Graduate Technical
Courses and Engineering Technology being 13th September, 2024, which
has been then extended to 23rd October, 2024, we do not find that the
petitioner has missed the bus and we do not want him to do so, by
directing him to be admitted in the next academic year, which would be a
loss of one year.

¶145

20.The Information Brochure itself provide an answer to the dilemma

¶146

faced by us, as to how could we restore a seat to the petitioner in the
respondent No.3-College.

¶147

The Brochure prescribe for two type of seats, being the Sanctioned
Intake and the Supernumerary Seats for various courses for Under
Graduate, Post Graduate, Integrated or Dual Degree Technical Courses,
which shall be as per the approval given by the Authority, which is
competent for giving approval to the respective courses.

¶148

Rule 6(2) of the Brochure contemplated that the supernumerary
seats shall be available to the Private Professional Educational Institutions

¶149

as approved by the Appropriate Authority, from time to time.

¶150

Rule 7, sub-clause (5) has categorized the supernumerary seats as
below :

¶151

22 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶152

(a)Supernumerary Seats for the OCI or PIO, Foreign Students and
the children of Indian Workers in Gulf Countries Candidates.
(b)Supernumerary Seats for the Jammu and Kashmir as well as
Ladakh Migrant Candidature.

¶153

(c)Tuition Fee Waiver Scheme (TFWS) Seats.

¶154

21.We have specifically enquired with the learned counsel appearing
for the respondent No.3-College as to whether they have filled the
supernumerary seats and we have received the response that they have
not availed the same.

¶155

22.The petitioner having qualified in the Common Entrance Test by
securing the requisite number of marks for getting admitted to an
prestigious Institution and since the merit and excellence deserve to be the
sole criteria, which must receive primacy over the niceties of procedure,
we have no hesitation in conferring a seat to the petitioner, though we are
required to issue a direction to activate a supernumerary seat, as we do
not intend to trample upon the right of the petitioner to be admitted to the
respondent No.3-College based on his own merit or to upset any other
candidate, who is allotted a seat, substituting the petitioner.

¶156

23.In the peculiar circumstances of this case, when we intend to have
restitutive justice for the petitioner, who was wrongly deprived of
confirmation of the provisional admission, in his favour on a flimsy ground
of not possessing the original caste certificate and since we are of the clear
opinion that the respondent-Authorities were completely insensitive and

¶157

23 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶158

have adopted unjust approach, what we can merely describe as
hyper-technical, which has put the career of the petitioner at stake.

¶159

In these circumstances, we deem it appropriate to admit the
petitioner on a supernumerary seat to be created by the respondent No.3-
College, as we do not intend to disturb any other student and we expect
the respondent Nos.1 and 2 to grant approval to the said seat, since the
rules framed by the respondent clearly contemplate the supernumerary
seats.

¶160

24.For the foregoing discussion, we allow the petition and pass the
following order :

¶161

(i)We issue a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the
respondent No.3, Karamveer Dadasaheb Kannamwar (K.D.K.)
Engineer College, Nagpur to confirm the provisional admission of the
petitioner, Aryan S/o Naresh Shende, in Computer Science and
Engineering for the Academic Year 2024-2025, as we find the
cancellation of his provisional admission is unjust and unfair to him
and amount to denial of his legal entitlement as per merit.

¶162

(ii)The petitioner shall report to the Respondent No.3-College on
4th October, 2024 before 5.00 p.m. alongwith the original caste
certificate and the respondent No.3-College shall accept the same on
record.

¶163

(iii)The petitioner shall comply with further necessary formalities,
as may be required, by the respondent No.3-College, so as to confirm
his provisional admission.

¶164

24 WP-5536-2024.odt

¶165

25. Rule is made absolute in the aforesaid terms. Easy on costs.

¶166

(ABHAY J. MANTRI, J.) (BHARATI DANGRE, J.)

¶167

LANJEWAR

Aryan S/O Naresh Shende v. State of Maha., Thr. Principal Secretary, Higher and Technical Education Dept., Mumbai and Ors.

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Aryan S/O Naresh Shende v. State of Maha., Thr. Principal Secretary, Higher and Technical Education Dept., Mumbai and Ors.

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

A compact analysis

Issues for consideration

Cases cited

Statutes considered

Parties & counsel

Coram

Case details

Similar cases

Vithoba S/O Runjaji Gawai Vs the State of Maharashtra, Thr. Secy., Dept. of Education, Mumbai and Ors.

Sunrise English Medium School, Lohara, Thr. Headmaster, Smt. Swati W/O Dinesh Pawar and Another Vs the State of Maharashtra, Thr. Its Minister Tribal Development Dept. Mumbai and Others

Mrs. Meena Lalit Baghele Vs the State of Maharashtra, Home Department, Thr. Secretary, Mumbai and Others

Anil S/O Murlidhar Wadpalliwar Vs the State of Maharashtra, Thr. Its Chief Secretary, Mumbai and Another

Pramod Vasanta Rathod Vs the Collector, Yavamal and Others

Anant S/O Subhash Lone and Others Vs the State of Maharashtra, Thr. Secretary, Dept. of Rural Devpt. and Welfare, Mumbai and Others