Mumbai: The Bombay High Court directed the Mumbai University to admit a student from Chhattisgarh under the supernumerary quota reserved for students from Jammu and Kashmir after she failed to get admission due to an accident.
The girl could not get admission as she did not attend the counseling session held by the Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences (CEBS) of the university. In her statement, she said that she had suffered an accident two days earlier and could not walk.
A division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Somasekhar Sundaresan, in its order dated September 12, said that Lamya Khurshid Siddiqui has an excellent academic record and scored 98 per cent in the national level entrance test conducted for this course.
It would be necessary to give credit to the petitioner and redress the discrimination suffered by her and not let her chance of getting admission before the court be affected by mere inability to attend a meeting in person, the HC observed.
"We do not believe that the simple inability to participate in such a verification process in an extraordinary situation should be allowed to inflict serious harm on the academic prospects of a bright student," she said.
The court took note of the fact that two other students who had informed the institute of their inability to attend the session due to medical issues were allowed to send a representative with all the necessary documents and were granted provisional admission.
Observing that the petitioner had suffered apparent injustice solely due to her inability to attend the counseling session, the court said that she was persuaded to grant relief based on the basic consideration that the two supernumerary posts would remain unutilized .
Then the merit of the petitioner would be a casualty, the HC bench stated.
"Therefore, recognizing that the right to education is not only a legal right but also a right leading to the enjoyment of the right to life under Article 21, without creating any precedent as it is a peculiar set of facts , it would be appropriate to use one of the two unused supernumerary seats to accommodate the petitioner," the court said.
The court noted that the petitioner, after completing her 12th standard examinations, registered the National Entrance Selection Test for admission into the five-year integrated Master of Science course conducted by the National Institute of Scientific Education and Research of Bhubaneswar (NISER) and Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai (CEBS).
She scored an all-India rank of 491, so she qualified for the course. The petitioner could not get admission in the NISER.
In August she received an email from CEBS inviting her to attend admission counseling, which the petitioner accepted.
However, two days before the scheduled counseling session, the petitioner suffered an accident that left her unable to walk.
A week later, the girl wrote to CEBS requesting an alternative counseling session as the admission process was still underway. But the request was rejected by the CEBS.
In her pleading she asked the CEBS to reconsider her application for admission, especially since people of lower rank than her had been admitted.
The CEBS informed the HC that the admission process had been completed and only two seats reserved under the supernumerary quota meant for students from Jammu and Kashmir remained vacant.
The institute claimed that accommodating the petitioner in one of these two seats would cause harm to other students who have not approached the court.
The court, however, noted that the law does not protect the indolent but it does protect the vigilant.
He said that the petitioner was aware of her right to knock on the doors of the court to protect her fundamental rights.
The court ordered the CEBS to grant admission to the petitioner and complete all procedural formalities promptly.
The girl could not get admission as she did not attend the counseling session held by the Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences (CEBS) of the university. In her statement, she said that she had suffered an accident two days earlier and could not walk.
A division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Somasekhar Sundaresan, in its order dated September 12, said that Lamya Khurshid Siddiqui has an excellent academic record and scored 98 per cent in the national level entrance test conducted for this course.
It would be necessary to give credit to the petitioner and redress the discrimination suffered by her and not let her chance of getting admission before the court be affected by mere inability to attend a meeting in person, the HC observed.
"We do not believe that the simple inability to participate in such a verification process in an extraordinary situation should be allowed to inflict serious harm on the academic prospects of a bright student," she said.
The court took note of the fact that two other students who had informed the institute of their inability to attend the session due to medical issues were allowed to send a representative with all the necessary documents and were granted provisional admission.
Observing that the petitioner had suffered apparent injustice solely due to her inability to attend the counseling session, the court said that she was persuaded to grant relief based on the basic consideration that the two supernumerary posts would remain unutilized .
Then the merit of the petitioner would be a casualty, the HC bench stated.
"Therefore, recognizing that the right to education is not only a legal right but also a right leading to the enjoyment of the right to life under Article 21, without creating any precedent as it is a peculiar set of facts , it would be appropriate to use one of the two unused supernumerary seats to accommodate the petitioner," the court said.
The court noted that the petitioner, after completing her 12th standard examinations, registered the National Entrance Selection Test for admission into the five-year integrated Master of Science course conducted by the National Institute of Scientific Education and Research of Bhubaneswar (NISER) and Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai (CEBS).
She scored an all-India rank of 491, so she qualified for the course. The petitioner could not get admission in the NISER.
In August she received an email from CEBS inviting her to attend admission counseling, which the petitioner accepted.
However, two days before the scheduled counseling session, the petitioner suffered an accident that left her unable to walk.
A week later, the girl wrote to CEBS requesting an alternative counseling session as the admission process was still underway. But the request was rejected by the CEBS.
In her pleading she asked the CEBS to reconsider her application for admission, especially since people of lower rank than her had been admitted.
The CEBS informed the HC that the admission process had been completed and only two seats reserved under the supernumerary quota meant for students from Jammu and Kashmir remained vacant.
The institute claimed that accommodating the petitioner in one of these two seats would cause harm to other students who have not approached the court.
The court, however, noted that the law does not protect the indolent but it does protect the vigilant.
He said that the petitioner was aware of her right to knock on the doors of the court to protect her fundamental rights.
The court ordered the CEBS to grant admission to the petitioner and complete all procedural formalities promptly.
