Raising the issue of poor doctor ratio in India, the Bombay High Court allowed awarding a degree to a medical student who wrongly gained admission to an MBBS degree in 2012.
The student was enrolled in the course on an OBC (non-creamy layer) certificate based on false information and suppressing authentic information. During the hearing, the court observed that doctors were needed and decided not to cancel her admission as she had completed the course, The Times of India reported.
“In our country, where the ratio of doctors to population is very low, withdrawing her qualification would be a national loss, as citizens would be deprived of one doctor,” said a division bench of Justices A S Chandurkar and Jitendra Jain.
However, the court did take into account the “unfair means” by which the parents of Lubna Mujawar got her admitted to a college under the OBC category which has “deprived another eligible candidate”.
“If the medical profession is based on a foundation of false information it would certainly be a blot on the noble profession,” the High Court said in the ruling.
The student asked to pay an additional fee
While the Bombay High Court retained her admission, it directed the student to pay fees as an open-category student with an additional Rs 50,000 payment.
The court also held that the Mumbai suburban collector was justified when it cancelled the non-creamy layer certificate which was issued to Mujawar. The Lokmanya Tilak Medical College at Sion cancelled her admission to the MBBS course in February 2014.
However, an interim order allowed her to study in the college. In the latest judgement, the High Court stated that due to the fact that she had completed her course in 2017 over a passage of time, she should be conferred with the degree.
The court insisted that it would not be fair to not grant a degree to a student who has already qualified as a doctor. The high court also condemned the father’s decision to give false information and not disclose that the student’s mother worked in a municipal corporation.
During the 2012 hearing, Mujawar argued that since her father gave her mother a divorce, he did not mention her income on the certificate. However, the prosecutors argued that the student’s father falsely stated that they were not staying together to avoid going beyond the 4.5 lakh income limit for non-creamy status.
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