The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has directed the UT administration to issue a sports gradation certificate (SGC) to a student, who had approached the court against UT’s decision to deny him the same.
“It would be unjust, unfair, arbitrary and irrational to deny issuance of sports gradation certificate to the petitioner on the pretext that he was not a student from the schools/colleges recognised by the Chandigarh administration and situated in the Union Territory despite the fact that he is not seeking admission in any of the institutions under the control of Chandigarh administration,” the bench of justice Sandeep Moudgil and justice Deepak Gupta observed while allowing his plea.
The plea was from one Manraj Singh Chatha, who said he had participated in various sports competitions held in the country from time-to-time and was part of the Chandigarh Rifle Association.
He appeared in an entrance test for Panjab University (PU) to pursue a five-year law degree and was desirous to apply under the sports quota. However, the UT sports department refused to issue the certificate citing that he studied his Class 12 in a Mohali school and hence, the certificate was to be issued from Punjab. UT had argued that the certificate cannot be issued as the petitioner has not passed the qualifying examination from a school/college recognised by the Chandigarh administration and situated in the city as a regular student, for at least two years before applying for gradation certificate.
The court said there is no bar coming forth in UT’s policy that it cannot issue an SGC at all to a sportsman who has represented the Chandigarh team but studied in schools/colleges of other states as is the proposition involved in the case in hand wherein the petitioner was studying in Mohali but represented the Chandigarh Rifle Association at the state as well as national levels on various occasions.
{{/usCountry}}The court said there is no bar coming forth in UT’s policy that it cannot issue an SGC at all to a sportsman who has represented the Chandigarh team but studied in schools/colleges of other states as is the proposition involved in the case in hand wherein the petitioner was studying in Mohali but represented the Chandigarh Rifle Association at the state as well as national levels on various occasions.
{{/usCountry}}It added that UT’s policy provides for reservation for admission under the sports category in the schools/colleges recognized by the administration and situated in the city whereas in the case in hand, the petitioner is not seeking admission to any of the institutes under UT but in the Panjab University, which is not under the control of UT administration.