Plea In Bombay HC Challenges MBBS Seat Allotment, Says State Applied Different Rules For Specified & Constitutional Reservations

A petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court challenging a seat allotment process for the MBBS course by the State CET Cell, arguing that the State has applied different rules for specified reservations and constitutional reservations.Today, the counsel for the petitioner argued that the State has made different rules for specified reservations, which include hilly areas, handicap, defence categories, and constitutional reservations. A division bench of Justice A.S. Chandurkar and Justice Rajesh S. Patil said that they would hear the matter tomorrow. The petitioner is a permanent resident of Nashik District, which is notified as a hilly and backward area by the State of Maharashtra. The petitioner appeared for the NEET UG exam and received a rank of 14874 in All India Ranking. He then participated in the admission process of 85% state quota conducted by the State CET Cell. The petition states that as per the infromation brochure published by the State CET cell relating to rules for condcuting Centralized Admission Process (CAP), every candidate is required to fill preference form before each CAP rounds. The petitioner filled preference from Hilly Area category and Open category before CAP round 1. He opted for Nair College Mumbai at Sr. No. 5 and Government Medical College, Nagpur at Sr. 8. He was alloted the Government Medical College, Nagpur in CAP round 1 under the Hill area category. It is stated that during CAP round 1, a candidate with AIR ranking 3649 was allotted a seat at Nair Medical College Mumbai under the HA OPEN Women category, while a candidate with AIR 7519 received the other HA OPEN seat there. For CAP round 2, the petitioner opted for upgradation and again filled his preference of Nair College Mumbai at Sr. no. 5. It is stated that the for CAP round 2, the candidate with AIR ranking 3649 was upgraded to another college. The grievance of the petitioner is that instead of allotting the Nair Medical College seat to the next woman candidate (with AIR 7519), the State CET Cell allotted the same to another candidate (respondent no. 6) and retained the former in HA OPEN category seat at Nair Medical College.The petition states that if the State CET Cell had allotted the candidate with AIR 7519 under HA OPEN Women at Nair Medical College, then the HA OPEN seat as per merit in the same college would be allotted to the petitioner having AIR 14874 instead of respondent no. 6 having lesser marks with AIR 16549. The petitioner argues that as per Rule 9.4.9 of the Information Brochure, 30% female reservation has to be implemented by way of parallel reservation. The petition states that as per the Information Brochure, 30% parallel female reservation seats have to be fillef in the first round and only after exhausting the same, general merit seats can be filled. The petitioner thus contends that as per the said rules, female candidates should be first alloted female quota seats, and only after exhasuting the same, female candidates should be allotted general seats. The petitioner sought to direct the State CET cell to transfer him to Nair Medical College, Mumbai, and respondent no. 6 to Government Medical College Nagpur for the MBBS course. The petitioner also sought compensation from the State for not allotting him Nair Medical College, Mumbai. Case title: Akhilesh Kalyan Chothe Vs State Of Maharashtra And Ors (WP/16743/2024)

Plea In Bombay HC Challenges MBBS Seat Allotment, Says State Applied Different Rules For Specified & Constitutional Reservations

Sanjana Dadmi

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