OBC student with document discrepancies gets admission after court direction

After Bombay High Court intervention, the Ayurveda college agreed to admit Sapna Patil, an OBC student, to its postgraduate BAMS course. The college had initially denied admission due to document discrepancies.

In Short

• Student's admission was denied due to minor document discrepancies
• High Court called college's rejection 'unfounded' after review
• Directs MES Ayurved Mahavidyalaya to admit Sapna Patil

After being pulled up by the Bombay High Court, an Ayurveda college in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district has agreed to admit an OBC student to the postgraduate (PG) BAMS course, who was initially denied admission over minor discrepancies in her documents.

The student, Sapna Patil, from Thane can now complete her admission process at the MES Ayurved Mahavidyalaya before November 8.

The case, presided over by Justices Arif Doctor and Somsekhar Sundaresan, was filed by Patil, who comes from a financially disadvantaged background and belongs to Maharashtra’s ‘Agri’ caste, recognised as an Other Backward Class (OBC) by the state.

Patil, who holds both a Caste Certificate and a Caste Validity Certificate, had completed her BAMS course from Mahadevrao Shivankar Ayurvedic Medical College in Gondia and is registered with the Maharashtra Council of Indian Medicine.

Despite meeting the qualifications for the PG course at MES Ayurved Mahavidyalaya, Patil’s application was initially rejected due to a discrepancy in serial numbers mentioned in her caste certificate and caste validity certificate. .

Patil explained that these same documents had been accepted for her BAMS degree, yet her admission request was denied.

After reviewing her plea on November 5, the High Court deemed the college’s rejection "unfounded".

On Thursday, advocate Neel Helekar, representing the college, submitted that additional discrepancies were noted in the petitioner’s documents. "The name and date of birth of the petitioner on the School Leaving Certificate, Domicile Certificate, and Aadhaar Card were spelled differently," said Helekar.

However, advocate Dhruti Kapadia, representing the state Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell, submitted that since one seat is vacant in MES Ayurved Mahavidyalaya, Patil should be allowed to take that seat. She can report to the college by November 8 to complete the required document and fee formalities, and Helekar agreed.

Helekar added that the college has no objection to admitting Patil. However, she will need to file an affidavit clarifying these discrepancies, which must be submitted by November 14.