Coming to the rescue of a student from Chhattisgarh who failed to secure admission to the Master of Science course after meeting with an accident, the Bombay High Court has directed the Mumbai University’s Centre for Excellence in Basic Science (CEBS) to grant her admission under the supernumerary quota reserved for students from Jammu and Kashmir. The court noted that the right to education is a statutory right and under the peculiar facts, one of the two un-utilized supernumerary seats can be used to accommodate the girl.
The HC was hearing a Petition by Lamya Siddiqui contending that she could not secure admission as she failed to attend the counselling session held by the institute as she met with an accident two days before the session, which left her bed ridden.
The court also took note of the fact that Siddiqui has an excellent academic record and that she scored 90.2% in the national level entrance test for this course. It would be necessary to recognize the girl’s merit and redress the discrimination and not let her opportunity to secure admission to the Course suffer for the sheer inability to attend an in-person meeting, the court said.
“We do not think the sheer inability to participate in such a verification process in an extraordinary situation should be permitted to inflict grievous harm to a bright student’s academic prospects,” a bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Somasekhar Sundaresan said on September 12.
Moreover, two other students, who had informed the institute about their inability to attend the session due to medical issues, were permitted to send a representative with all necessary documents and they were given provisional admission.
The Judges opined that Siddiqui has suffered an apparent injustice solely due to her inability to attend the counselling session, and the impact appeared disproportionate.
Further the court said it was persuaded to grant her relief as, otherwise, the two supernumerary seats would remain unutilized. The seats would in fact be wasted and Siddiqui’s merit would be a casualty.
After completing Class 12 examination, Siddiqui registered for the National Entrance Screening Test, for admission into the five-year integrated Master of Science course, conducted by the National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar (NISER) and The Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai (CEBS). She secured an all-India rank of 491 thereby qualifying for admission to the course. In August, she received an email from the CEBS inviting her to attend an admission counselling, which she could not attend due to the accident.
She informed the institute about the accident and requested an alternate counselling session, as the admission process was still on, which was turned down. Hence she approached the HC.
The CEBS submitted that the admission process is over and all seats have been filled up. It claimed that only two seats reserved under the supernumerary quota earmarked for students from J&K are vacant.
The HC hence directed CEBS to grant her admission and complete all procedural formalities expeditiously.
