Mumbai resident gets MBBS degree despite cancellation of non-creamy layer certificate

Noting that the ratio between doctors and people in the country was low, and the withholding of her degree would be national loss, the court directed the university to confer the degree within 12 weeks, subject to the payment of fees and litigation charges

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) to confer the MBBS degree on a 27-year-old city resident although the non-creamy layer certificate, based on which she was enrolled as a student under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, was cancelled due to irregularities. Noting that the ratio between doctors and people in the country was low, and the withholding of her degree would be national loss, the court directed the university to confer the degree within 12 weeks, subject to the payment of fees and litigation charges.

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The petitioner had approached the high court in 2017 through advocate Dhairyasheel Sutar, challenging the October 2013 order of the district Collector cancelling her non-creamy layer certificate. She had also challenged the February 2014 decision of the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and Hospital, Sion to cancel her admission to the MBBS course on account of cancellation of her non-creamy layer certificate.

The petitioner had completed the MBBS course based of the interim orders passed by the high court and was currently pursuing a super-specialty course at Bengaluru after completing her post-graduation and mandatory internships, according to her lawyer.

The division bench of justices AS Chandurkar and Jitendra Jain noted on Thursday that while obtaining the non-creamy layer certificate, her father had suppressed information regarding her mother’s employment with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). He had showed only his own income as the family income. After revenue officials found out about her mother’s job during an inquiry and questioned him, he claimed that he had given talaq to his wife but was staying with her for the sake of his children; therefore, her income was not counted in his family income.

The court refused to accept this claim, saying it was “self-contradictory and an afterthought”. It said the collector and the college authorities were justified in cancelling her non-creamy later certificate and her admission, respectively, as they were “based on false, incorrect and suppression of information”.

The court, however, felt it necessary to confer the medical degree on her, saying it would not be proper at this stage to withhold the same. “In our country, where the ratio of doctors to the population is very low, any action to withdraw the qualification obtained by the Petitioner would be a national loss,” the division bench noted, directing MUHS and the medical college to issue her a degree certificate with 12 weeks, subject to the payment of fees for open category students. She will also have to pay an additional amount of ₹50,000 to the medical college towards litigation costs.