Mumbai Resident Gets MBBS Degree Despite Non-Creamy Layer Certificate Cancelled | Bombay News

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) to confer MBBS degree on a 27-year-old city resident, despite the non-creamy layer certificate, on the basis of which she was registered as a student under Other Backward Classes (OBC) category was canceled due to irregularities. Noting that the ratio of doctors to population in the country was low and denial of his degree would constitute a national loss, the court ordered the university to confer the degree within 12 weeks, subject to payment court costs and court costs.

The petitioner had approached the High Court in 2017 through advocate Dhairyasheel Sutar, challenging the district collector’s October 2013 order canceling her non-creamy layer certificate. She had also challenged the February 2014 decision of Sion’s Lokmanya Tilak Medical College and Municipal Hospital to cancel her admission to the MBBS course due to cancellation of her non-layer certificate.

The petitioner had completed the MBBS course based on the interim orders passed by the High Court and was currently pursuing a super-specialty course in Bangalore after completing her post-graduation and compulsory internships, according to her lawyer.

The division bench comprising Justices AS Chandurkar and Jitendra Jain on Thursday noted that while obtaining the non-creamy layer certificate, her father deleted the information regarding her mother’s employment with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC ). He had listed only his own income as family income. After tax officials discovered his mother’s work during an investigation and questioned him, he claimed that he had given talaq to his wife but stayed with her for the sake of his children ; therefore, his income was not taken into account in his family income.

The court refused to accept this assertion, calling it “contradictory and an afterthought.” He said the Collector and the college authorities were justified in canceling his subsequent non-creamy certificate and admission respectively as they were “based on false, incorrect and suppressed information”.

The court, however, found it necessary to confer the medical degree on him, finding that it would not be appropriate at this stage to deny him the degree. “In our country, where the ratio of doctors to population is very low, any action to take away the degree obtained by the petitioner would be a national loss,” the division bench noted, ordering MUHS and the Faculty of Medicine to issue him a diploma. 12-week certificate, subject to payment of tuition fees for open category students. She will also have to pay an additional amount of ₹50,000 to the medical faculty for litigation costs.