NOOKAVARAPU KANAKADURGA DEVI Vs. KAKATIYA MEDICAL COLLEGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a woman student who had applied for admission to the Kakatiya Medical College,. a college, run by the Regional Medical Education Society. Warangal in the first year M. B. B. S. of the five-and-half year integrated course. The petitioner was born at Vijayawada on the 10/06/1951 and in 1954 she along with her mother started living with her maternal grandfather. Lingam Venkaiah, at Kundanapalli in Adilabad District. The grandfather was working as a contractor with M/s. Sashikant Karsonji & Co. from 1954 to 1959. From the year 1959 onwards till 1962 he had been working as a contractor to the Singarent Collieries Company at mandamarri and Ramagundam. The petitioner was born at Vijayawada when her maternal grand-father was living there. It is stated the maternal grand-father is living in Telangana from 1954 onwards as stated above. The petitioner and her mother moved from Vijayawada t Telengana along with her grand-father as the petitioners father. Nagabhushana Rao, had, by the year 1954, ceased to take any interest in the petitioner or her mother. In the year 1962, the grand-father purchased 10 acres of cultivable land at Kundanapalli near Ramagundam and constructed a house in the same place in the year 1968 and thus settled down at Kundanapalli in Karimanagar District The grand-father has been acting as the guardian and caretaker of the petitioner from her childhood. The grand-father who was previously a school teacher under the Krishna District Board got the petitioner educated at home upto 1961. In the year 1961, he got the petitioner admitted into the 5th standard at Mandamarri Zilla Parishad Middle School where the petitioner studied upto the year 1963. As there was no 8th class at Mandamarri and as the grand-father was anxious to get the petitioner admitted in a Montesori School, he got her admitted into the Childrens Montessori High School, Vijayawada. in 1963. The petitioner, studied in that high school upto 1967, when the she passed her S. S. L. C. Public Examination. During this period the petitioner was staying at the hostel attached to the High School and was being maintained and looked after by her grand-father. After finishing her S. S. L. C. the petitioner joined the Raja Bahadur Venkatrama Reddy Womens College, Hyderabad, and studied Pre-University course during 1967-69 and passed the P. U. C. examination in second division in December, 1969. It is stated in the affidavit that it is on the basis of the aforesaid facts that the petitioner applied to the Principal, Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal, for admission into the first year integrated M. B. B. S. course for the year 1969-70. It is averred that her application was accompanied by all the necessary certificates including the Domicile Certificate issued by the Collector. Karimanagar, and a certificate issued by the M. L. A. of that place testifying to the fact that the petitioners grand-father had lived for a total period of 15 years in that place. The petitioner paid all the fees and was admitted to the entrance examination with her Roll No. 255, but she was rejected admission into the medical college through a communication dated the 4/06/1970 sent by the Principal of that College. The aforesaid communication states that the evidence produced by the petitioner on the 6/04/1970 in support of her nativity of 15 years residence in Telangana region was not fully convincing to the Selection Committee and therefore her application for admission into the M. B. B. S. course was rejected.

(2.) The petitioner contends that the Selection Committee was wholly wrong in coming to the conclusion that the petitioner had not the domicile of 15 years in the Telangana area. There was a domicile certificate issued by the District Collector, Karimanagar, and a certificate issued by the local M. L. A. The fact that the petitioner studied in Zilla Parishad Middle School, Mandamarri, was borne out by public record and that the petitioners grand-father, Venkaiah, worked as a contractor from 1954 to 1962 in that area was borne out by the relevant documents. It was also shown to the Selection Committee that during the entire period from 1954 to 1970 the petitioner grand-father. it is contended that the rule of the society that there shall be 15 years of residence in Telangana area for claiming admission into the college is wholly arbitrary, unconstitutional and unreasonable. it is a clear denial of equality before the law guaranteed is the petitioner who is a citizen of India,

(3.) The case of the 1st respondent is that the last date for filing of applications for admission to the first year integrated M. B. B. S., course was 2/03/1970. The petitioner had not, along with her application, submitted the conduct certificate, transfer certificate, physical fitness certificate and nativity certificate, and she was asked t do so on or before 2/03/1970. On the 3/03/1970, the petitioner produced the certificates referred to above. The nativity certificate she produced was granted by the Personal Assistant to the Collector of Karimanagar and is dated the 3/03/1970. The Selection Committee was not satisfied with the nativity or the domicile certificate produced by the petitioner and she was interviewed on the 26/03/1970 and was directed to produce on the 6/04/1970, evidence to prove her domicile. On the 6/04/1970 in addition to the domicile certificate produced by the petitioner, she produced two certificates one issued by the Sarpanch of Kundanapalli Panchayat dated the 2/04/1970 and the other by the Patwari of the same village dated 24/01/1970. Both the aforesaid certificates are in the same terms and state that for the last 16 years Kumari Kanakadurga Devi has been studying under the Protection of her grand-father. Sri Lingam Vengaiah at Kundanapalli. The other certificates referred to in the writ petition and copies of which have been filed be copies of which have been filed before us were not produced before the Selection Committee. The certificate given by the M. L. A. Myadaram is dated the 9/04/1970 and has evidently been obtained after the interview of the petitioner with the Selection Committee on the 6/04/1970. The certificates given by the engineering contractors, Messrs. Shashikant Karsonji & Co., and the one given by the Deputy General manager of the Singareni Collieries Co. Ltd., were also not produced before the Selection Committee. It is averred that the Selection Committee on the basis of the evidence produced by the Petitioner was not satisfied that the petitioner was a resident of the Telangana Region. The Selection Committee has observed that the petitioner joined in 1961 the Mandamarri Zilla Parishad Middle School, but there was no evidence that the petitioners elementary education took place in the Telangana region. It was not stated t the Selection Committee that the petitioner was educated by he grand-father at home, and that she had not jointed any school till the year 1961. It was also not stated in the letter addressed by the grand-father of the petitioner to the Principal of the college on the 20th April, 1970. It was stated for the first time in the writ petition that the petitioner was educated privately by her grand-father up to 1961. Further, it was not stated before the Selection Committee that the father of the petitioner had deserted her and her mother and because of such desertion, they were living with the petitioners grant-father. This statement was made for the first time in the letter of the petitioners grand-father dated the 20/04/1970. It is, therefore, contended that as there was no evidence worth the name before the Selection Committee for establishing the residence of the petitioner between 1954 and 1961, the Selection Committee rightly came to the conclusion that the petitioner did not have the necessary domicile of 15 years in the Telangana region.