The Calcutta High Court has directed administrative authorities to grant a domicile certificate within one week to a student who qualified in the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination, ruling that the deletion of her mother’s name from the voter list cannot serve as a ground to deny the document.
Passing the order on August 27, Justice Krishna Rao held that state authorities had demonstrated no lawful justification for withholding the certificate from the candidate, who required it to participate in the ongoing engineering admissions counselling process.
Candidate’s Residence and Electoral Standing Affirmed
The petitioner, who had appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in addition to clearing the WBJEE, approached the court after officials sat on her application without either issuing the document or formally rejecting the request.
State representatives argued during the hearing that the applicant was ineligible for the resident credential because her mother’s name had been expunged from the electoral roll.
Rejecting the state’s contention, the court emphasized that administrative verification must focus on the individual applying for the certificate rather than external family records. The bench noted that the petitioner was born and brought up in West Bengal, completed her schooling up to Class XII in the state, and had previously received a domicile certificate in August 2024 following an official inquiry by a sub-divisional officer. Furthermore, the court observed that the petitioner’s own name remains registered on the voter roll and that she exercised her franchise during the preceding Assembly election.
One-Week Deadline Issued to Sub-Divisional Administration
Concluding the proceedings, Justice Rao instructed the relevant Sub-Divisional Officer or Sub-Divisional Magistrate to provide the domicile certificate to the applicant within one week of receiving the court’s order, subject to her meeting other standard eligibility criteria.
Related Relief Granted in Passport Clearance Dispute
In a separate matter involving voter list deletions, the high court recently intervened to expedite an administrative appeal affecting a medical aspirant.
On August 20, Justice Rao directed the Special Intensive Revision appellate tribunal to decide an appeal filed by a woman within a preferred timeframe of two weeks. The woman had approached the court stating that the removal of her name from the voter registry had stalled her son’s passport processing, thereby preventing him from pursuing an MBBS degree in Bangladesh.
