HC Imposes A Penalty Of Rs. 10.93 Lakh In Order To Prevent Doctor From Losing MBBS Degree
The medical professional has been identified as a 30-year-old Kurla resident who earned his MBBS from a state-run medical college in 2015 and a postgraduate diploma in ophthalmology in June 2019. In April 2016, he finished his 12-month internship as well. However, it was discovered that he obtained a bogus caste certificate in order to qualify for a medical seat at Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital under the Scheduled Tribe quota.
Ultimately, the DMER was notified by the Nandurbar Caste Scrutiny Committee on February 12, 2019, that the validity certificate provided by the Kurla resident when applying for admission to the MBBS program in the academic year 2010–11 was not given by it.
As a result, DMER instructed the medical schools to send a letter to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) asking them to immediately revoke the doctor’s degree and impose a hefty punishment on him for using fraud to gain admission. According to Hindustan Times, the medical institution instructed him to deposit a total of 10.93 lakhs on August 21, 2019, comprising 10 lakh towards a fine, 72,000 toward an internship allowance, and 21,000 toward first-year tuition.
The doctor sought relief by approaching the High Court through attorney Madhav Thorat. He claimed that his father had met someone who had looked over his papers and told him they could apply for admission under the reserved category because they were members of the Tadvi community, a Scheduled Tribe. He continued by saying that he obtained the 4th rank in the ST category and the 854th position in the open category, which qualified him for admission to a government medical college for a seat in the MBBS program. According to Clause 2.4 of the Brochure for Admission Under MH-CET 2010, he would therefore be considered to have been admitted under the open category, the attorney said.
A government counsel contested the case, arguing that the petitioner intentionally submitted a false Caste Validity Certificate in order to be admitted to the MBBS court, which led to the revocation of his degree. On October 18, the division bench of justices SV Gangapurwala and RN Laddha took into account the arguments made by both parties and partially overturned the communication released by DMER on July 17th, 2019 on the grounds that, in accordance with clause 2.4 of the brochure, it would be unethical to refuse the petitioner’s request for a degree.
When issuing its order, the bench made it clear that anyone applying for admission under the reserved category will also be eligible for admission under the open category if they receive enough votes to qualify, and in such cases, one seat in the college where they would have qualified for an open seat will be set aside for a candidate from the reserved category. In that opinion, the seat of the Scheduled Tribe reserved category candidate cannot be considered to have been lost due to the petitioner’s admission.
The panel did not, however, interfere with the petitioner’s deposit of the 10.93 lakhs order made by Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital.
News Mania Desk
