PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has looked down kindly upon a Dhangar student, who would have missed out on an opportunity to be the the first ever girl child from the community to study MBBS in the State due to the "inflexibility of educational admission processes." The court directed that the Goa Medical College make an exception and admit her in last year's batch instead of letting a vacant seat lapse.
Punam Navalo Zore, a resident of Nagargao, Dhave-Tar in Sattari, is one of the five daughters of an agricultural labourer earning no more than `3,000 a month.
Punam did well in the qualifying XIIth standard science examination and in the Common Entrance Test (GCET) conducted in the State for preparing a merit list to professional degree courses.
Punam applied for admission to the MBBS course in 2016-2017 and she was shortlisted at serial No 38 in the merit list. However, the Goa Medical College, for that year had only a total of 34 seats under reservation for the OBC category.
But several students who were above her in the merit list listed between Nos 1 and 34 opted for other courses and others obtained admission in the general category. Finally, the last student on the merit list of OBC candidates was one Soniya Sanjay Dongrekar. Her name was at No 37, i.e., immediately above Punam, in the merit list. Punam would have missed out on her seat by just one seat.
The Goa Dhangar Association, which assisted Punam in the case, found that there was a student named Neha Naguesh Gouli placed at serial No. 21 in the merit list who they said, had falsely staked a claim to admission in the reserved OBC category on the basis of a fake or illegal birth certificate.
However, rather than examine the veracity of the certificate of Neha Naguesh Gouli, the High Court found that Neha abandoned her admission and she discontinued attending lecturers from March 1, 2017. Neha even sent her ‘resignation' to the undersecretary health saying that she has demitted her seat.
As per the process in force, Punam would have to go through the admission process all over again, a process complicated by the fact that now GCET has been discontinued and students would have to answer NEET to seek admission in a medical college, which led to the court's intervention.
"It would be heaping injustice on inequity if, given her background, and given that there is a vacancy Punam was to be denied it on the ground that the seat had ‘lapsed. We find it disturbing, and that is putting it mildly," the High Court of justices G S Patel and Nutan Sardesai said in their order. "It shocks our conscience. Nearly seven decades after Independence we find it unacceptable that a young lady from a community that has been historically disadvantaged should now be told that for no fault of her own the educational dreams that she pursued and laboured for are nothing but dust and that she is condemned now to remain in that disadvantaged position, for she has neither the means nor the resources to pursue an alternative. This is the stark reality that faces us and we do not find it in ourselves to refuse the relief," the court observed adding that in no way would the interests of the medical college or the Medical Council of India be harmed by allowing Punam to be admitted.
"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," the HC clarified.
"We are mindful of the fact that what faces Punam Zore now is an even greater struggle. She will have to make up for 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 played some small role in that success," the HC ruled while mandating that the Goa Medical College admit her as a student in the first year of the ongoing batch which began in the year 2016-17.
Punam will have to, in all likelihood repeat the first year of her MBBS as being admitted to the course a year after it has begun would mean she is unlikely to have the requisite attendance to answer exams.
The Bombay High Court at Goa has looked down kindly upon a Dhangar student, who would have missed out on an opportunity to be the the first ever girl child from the community to study MBBS in the State due to the "inflexibility of educational admission processes." The court directed that the Goa Medical College make an exception and admit her in last year's batch instead of letting a vacant seat lapse.
Punam Navalo Zore, a resident of Nagargao, Dhave-Tar in Sattari, is one of the five daughters of an agricultural labourer earning no more than `3,000 a month.
Punam did well in the qualifying XIIth standard science examination and in the Common Entrance Test (GCET) conducted in the State for preparing a merit list to professional degree courses.
Punam applied for admission to the MBBS course in 2016-2017 and she was shortlisted at serial No 38 in the merit list. However, the Goa Medical College, for that year had only a total of 34 seats under reservation for the OBC category.
But several students who were above her in the merit list listed between Nos 1 and 34 opted for other courses and others obtained admission in the general category. Finally, the last student on the merit list of OBC candidates was one Soniya Sanjay Dongrekar. Her name was at No 37, i.e., immediately above Punam, in the merit list. Punam would have missed out on her seat by just one seat.
The Goa Dhangar Association, which assisted Punam in the case, found that there was a student named Neha Naguesh Gouli placed at serial No. 21 in the merit list who they said, had falsely staked a claim to admission in the reserved OBC category on the basis of a fake or illegal birth certificate.
However, rather than examine the veracity of the certificate of Neha Naguesh Gouli, the High Court found that Neha abandoned her admission and she discontinued attending lecturers from March 1, 2017. Neha even sent her ‘resignation' to the undersecretary health saying that she has demitted her seat.
As per the process in force, Punam would have to go through the admission process all over again, a process complicated by the fact that now GCET has been discontinued and students would have to answer NEET to seek admission in a medical college, which led to the court's intervention.
"It would be heaping injustice on inequity if, given her background, and given that there is a vacancy Punam was to be denied it on the ground that the seat had ‘lapsed. We find it disturbing, and that is putting it mildly," the High Court of justices G S Patel and Nutan Sardesai said in their order. "It shocks our conscience. Nearly seven decades after Independence we find it unacceptable that a young lady from a community that has been historically disadvantaged should now be told that for no fault of her own the educational dreams that she pursued and laboured for are nothing but dust and that she is condemned now to remain in that disadvantaged position, for she has neither the means nor the resources to pursue an alternative. This is the stark reality that faces us and we do not find it in ourselves to refuse the relief," the court observed adding that in no way would the interests of the medical college or the Medical Council of India be harmed by allowing Punam to be admitted.
"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," the HC clarified.
"We are mindful of the fact that what faces Punam Zore now is an even greater struggle. She will have to make up for 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 played some small role in that success," the HC ruled while mandating that the Goa Medical College admit her as a student in the first year of the ongoing batch which began in the year 2016-17.
Punam will have to, in all likelihood repeat the first year of her MBBS as being admitted to the course a year after it has begun would mean she is unlikely to have the requisite attendance to answer exams.
