The Supreme Court of India, in a significant order balancing law and equity, has regularized the MBBS admission of a student whose Scheduled Tribe certificate was invalidated due to fraud committed by her father. While upholding the invalidation of the “Mannervarlu” Scheduled Tribe status, a bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K.V. Viswanathan exercised its discretion to protect the student’s career, citing the “peculiar facts and circumstances” of the case. However, the court held the father responsible for the “imbroglio” and directed him to pay Rs. 5,00,000 as compensation for a deserving Scheduled Tribe candidate losing a seat.
The appeal was filed against a Bombay High Court judgment which had dismissed the appellant’s petition challenging the invalidation of her caste certificate by the Scheduled Tribe Caste Certification Verification Committee.
Background of the Case
The appellant, Chaitanya, was issued a caste certificate on July 20, 2009, certifying her as belonging to the “Mannervarlu” Scheduled Tribe. Based on this certificate, she secured admission to the MBBS course on July 24, 2016. She successfully completed the course in 2021 and was pursuing her internship.
However, the Scrutiny Committee, which had been approached for verification of her certificate in 2015, passed an order on July 7, 2022, invalidating her claim to the Scheduled Tribe status. By this time, the appellant had not only completed her MBBS but had also secured admission to a Post-Graduate course in the general category.
The appellant challenged the committee’s order in the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, which dismissed her writ petition, leading to the present appeal before the Supreme Court.
High Court’s Findings of Fraud
The High Court, in its judgment, came down heavily on the appellant’s father and uncle. It noted that the tribe claims of both the appellant’s father, Mr. Sanjay Palekar, and her uncle, Rajiv Palekar, had been invalidated by the committee as far back as 1989. Their subsequent appeals were also dismissed by the Additional Commissioner, Nashik, in 1991.
The High Court found that this crucial fact of prior invalidation was suppressed when they later obtained fresh validity certificates. The court observed, “Apparently, father of the petitioner had resorted to fraud while obtaining the validity certificate dated 05.03.2007.” It further noted that the appellant and her father had tendered affidavits before the committee falsely stating that there was no invalidation of caste claims within the family.
Holding it as a “glaring example of patent fraud on constitution,” the High Court concluded that the subsequent validations obtained by the father and other relatives were vitiated by fraud and could not benefit the appellant.
Supreme Court’s Analysis and Decision
The Supreme Court concurred with the High Court’s findings, stating, “we may say that the High Court committed no error, much less any error of law, in passing the impugned judgment and order. In fact, the High Court has rightly come down very heavily on the father of the appellant.”
The bench, however, described the matter as presenting a “precarious situation.” It acknowledged that dismissing the appeal would mean the “end of her entire career,” given that she was a meritorious student who had completed her MBBS and was in the second year of her PG course.
The judgment noted, “We are conscious of the fact that equity should follow the law. However, in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, we thought fit to grant one opportunity to the appellant keeping only one thing in mind, i.e., her career and her life.”
The court squarely placed the blame on the appellant’s father for the situation, stating, “One and all are responsible for this and we hold the father of the appellant more responsible for creating this imbroglio. The suppression of material facts, at the end of the father, ultimately put his own daughter in difficulty.”
A decisive factor in the court’s decision was an undertaking filed by the appellant’s father, in which he stated in “unequivocal terms” that he would henceforth not claim any benefits as belonging to the “Mannervarlu, Scheduled Tribe” and gave up his claim.
While regularizing her MBBS admission, the court was haunted by the thought that “one eligible meritorious candidate from the Scheduled Tribe category lost the opportunity to pursue the MBBS course.” To address this, the court imposed a penalty on the father.
The final order of the Supreme Court stated:
- The appellant’s admission to the MBBS course is regularized, and the degree certificate issued to her shall be final.
- The appellant will not claim the status of “Mannervarlu” Scheduled Tribe ever in the future.
- The father of the appellant is directed to deposit an amount of Rs. 5,00,000 with the National Defence Fund within two months as compensation.
- On all other aspects, the High Court’s judgment is confirmed.
The court also remarked on the delay by the Scrutiny Committee, observing, “Had the Committee undertaken the necessary verification expeditiously and would have declared that the appellant does not fall within the Scheduled Tribe then probably nothing further would have occurred in the matter.”
