Students who secured a community certificate from another state cannot use the same to secure MBBS admission under reserved categories in Tamil Nadu, the Madras High Court has said.
The court was hearing a petition filed by S Geetha, who sought admission in Tamil Nadu based on the scheduled tribe (ST) certificate issued by the government of Andhra Pradesh, according to Deccan Chronicle. She was from Tamil Nadu but migrated to Andhra, the report added. Geetha had filed the writ petition with the Madras High Court, asking them to direct the selection committee of the Directorate of Medical Education to consider her application under the ST category.
“In my view, the petitioner would not be entitled to get any relief in this writ petition, since the petitioner has produced the community certificate by Andhra Pradesh and seeking relief to consider her candidature under the reserved category,” Justice S Vaidyanathan said, according to Times of India.
“In this case, dehors the question of migration, it is an admitted fact that the petitioner has obtained community certificate from the State of Andhra Pradesh and in view of Clause 18(b) of the Prospectus, she will not be entitled to any relief and her candidature can be considered only under the Open Category and not under the reserved category,” the judge added, according to the New Indian Express.
The Times of India reported that the judge relied on the judgement delivered by the Supreme Court in the Mari Chandra case, where the court had said that a person belonging to the SC/ST community who moved to a different state for work or education would only be able to receive benefits from the state they are originally from, and not the state they migrate to.
Hearing another plea, the Madras High Court also said that if a person who has applied for a reserved category admission does not produce the community certificate within the time given, their admission would be invalid.