The Maharashtra government has been ordered by the Bombay High Court to consider Maharashtra-born applicants who attended school elsewhere due to the demands of their parents’ jobs for admission under the state quota. On Monday, a divisional bench of Justices S V Gangapurwala and Madhav Jamdar announced the ruling in response to a plea from two kids, who are the offspring of an Army officer, challenging the State Common Entrance Test Cell’s qualifying requirements.
They were treated as candidates from outside Maharashtra for the five-year integrated LLB program’s entrance exam, MAH CET, in accordance with the criteria. The petitioners said that they attended primary school in Pune before moving to Delhi, where their father was stationed, to finish their secondary education. They argued that they ought to be qualified for the 85% quota for Maharashtra students.
The bench in its order, made available on Tuesday, noted that the rule that the candidate must have passed the 10th and 12th standard exams from Maharashtra was not unreasonable or arbitrary. “However, further distinction or exception will have to be made. There may be cases where the candidate/ student does not have a choice, such as the rigorous service conditions of the parents by virtue of which they are posted throughout the country in the service of the nation and; others, who voluntarily for their business or any other purposes, go to other State,” the court said.
“The State ought to consider the cases of the applicants who are residents of Maharashtra or were born there but are compelled to be deployed outside the State due to fortuitous circumstances, such as the service requirements of the parents who are in the nation’s service,” it continued. It stated that the state could offer relaxation in these circumstances and ordered the state government to consider the petitioners for admission to the Maharashtra quota.
