Supreme Court stays Gujarat High Court decision to cancel MBBS admission of Panipuri seller’s son

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order of the Gujarat High Court that had upheld the cancellation of MBBS admission of an Uttar Pradesh-born Panipuri seller’s son in a reserved category seat on the ground that he did not belong to the Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC) in the State of Gujarat. .A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra noted that the student would have been eligible for admission in several government medical colleges in Gujarat even as a general category candidate.."As can be seen, the petitioner's merit as general category candidate was taken into account in several government medical colleges in the State of Gujarat. However the division bench has held that as the petitioner is disentitled to be considered in SEBC category, he is disentitled for the seat in medical College," the Court observed. .Consequently, it issued notices to the college, the State of Gujarat, the Medical Council of India, and Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, while staying the order cancelling the student's admission..The petitioner's medical admission at Government Medical College, Vadodara was cancelled in September 2023 after it was found that the Teli subcaste to which he belonged could not have been recognized as SEBC in Gujarat since his parents originally belonged to Uttar Pradesh where the caste falls under Other Backward Class..On March 26, the Gujarat High Court had upheld the cancellation of the petitioner's admission.The division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee passed the decision despite the fact that the petitioner would have been eligible for admission even in the general category list and would not have required caste based reservation.The division bench passed the order on March 26 nearly two months after a single-judge had restored the student’s admission while considering his family background and commending him for his feat.While the single-judge had noted that the petitioner would have been eligible for being considered for admission in open category in a majority of the medical colleges, the division bench said,"There is no question of considering you in the open category. Once someone has claimed the benefit of reservation, he has to stand by that.”Aggrieved by this order, the petitioner moved the Supreme Court through advocate Purvish Malkan. .Senior Advocate Yatin Oza appeared for the student before the apex court today.