The court was hearing a petition by a student who was denied admission by a college.
The Bombay High Court has provided relief to a medical graduate who was denied admission in a post-graduate course in the Scheduled Tribe category despite possessing valid caste certificate on the ground that he had changed his surname.
The petitioner contended that though he had a Caste Validity Certificate and belonged to Scheduled Tribe, his claim to post graduate admission was not being considered on the ground that he has changed his surname.
"If the surname is changed, that does not change caste of a person. It is specific contention of the petitioner that the change in his surname is duly notified in the Government Gazette," observed the court.
"By way of ad-interim relief, we direct the respondents to consider the claim of petitioner from reserved category if the petitioner possesses validity certificate and a Government Notification notifying the change in his name," the court said.
The petitioner, Shantunu Hari Bhardwaj, said that after completion of his MBBS Degree, he had sought admission to Post Graduate Course under the reserved quota for ST community. However, he was denied admission by the respondents arbitrarily and illegally.
The petitioner said that his caste and sub-caste is Hindu-Tokre Koli which falls under the category of Scheduled Tribes as per the Schedule annexed to Constitution of India.
Mr Bhardwaj said that after passing his MBBS degree course, he had applied for admission to Post Graduate Course with the State Common Entrance Test Cell in accordance with the admission rules for the course in 2016.
Although he had completed all the formalities required for his admission to the course as per the select list, he said the authorities of Dr Punjabrao Bauchand Deshmuk Memorial Medical College, Amravati denied him admission on the ground that his name appearing in Caste Validity Certificate is different from what had appeared in the select list.