1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.2214 OF 2010 Rameshwar Malikarjun Bole, Age 25 years, Occu.Student, R/o Chabara, Taluka Hadgaon, District Nanded .. Petitioner Versus 1. The State of Maharashtra, Through the Secretary, Department of Social Welfare, Mantralaya, Mumbai 32 2. The Scrutiny Committee No.2, Ausa Road, Latur 3. The State of Maharashtra, Through the Director of Medical Education & Research, St.Gorge Hospital, Near C.S.T.Mumbai 400 001 .. Respondents Shri Sachin Deshmukh, Advocate for petitioner Shri K.G.Patil, Assistant Government Pleader for respondents CORAM : P.V. HARDAS AND S.V.GANGAPURWALA, JJ DATE : 24th March 2010 ORAL JUDGMENT (PER P.V.HARDAS, J.) 1. Rule. Rule returnable forthwith. With the consent of learned Counsel for the parties, this petition is heard finally at the stage of admission. 2 2. The petitioner claims to be belonging to Wani caste which came to be recognised as other backward class on 25.6.2008. The petitioner had accordingly obtained a certificate as belonging to Wani caste on 21.12.2009 and referred his claim to the scrutiny committee on 3.3.2010. The petitioner who was aspiring for post graduate qualification appeared for the PGM-CET 2010 for the Post Graduate entrance for M.D./M.S./Diploma. The petitioner, it appears successfully cleared the said examination and on the strength of his caste status as belonging to Wani caste the petitioner claims to be eligible to compete for the reserved seats. 3. The basic hurdle in the way of the petitioner is that his caste claim is pending and consequently, the petitioner is not armed with the validity certificate. The reliefs relating to the admission stipulate that if a candidate claims to be belonging to any reserve class, the candidate should submit the validity certificate. Therefore, submission of a validity certificate is a sine qua non before a candidate can be considered for the reserved seat. 4. The predicament of the petitioner is that the petitioner has applied for validity certificate on 3.3.2010 on account of the inclusion of Wani caste as other backward class on 3 25.6.2008. We have ascertained from the learned Assistant Government Pleader as to whether the scrutiny committee would be able to decide the caste status of the petitioner within period of two weeks from today, learned Assistant Government Pleader has expressed his difficulty and has stated that the scrutiny committee which is already over burdened with various caste claims would not be in a position to adjudicate and decide the caste status of the petitioner within two weeks. 5. In the peculiar facts of the present case, therefore, we allow this petition and direct the authorities to consider the petitioner as eligible for admission to a reserved seat i.e. of other backward class on the strength of his caste certificate issued to him and not to insist for the production of a validity certificate. The learned Assistant Government Pleader states that the caste claim of the petitioner would be decided within six weeks and accordingly, we direct the petitioner to appear before the scrutiny committee on 31st March 2010 and further direct the committee to decide the caste claim of the petitioner within six weeks of 31st March 2010. We, however, direct the petitioner to submit a written undertaking to this Court. The submission of the written undertaking would be a condition precedent before the petitioner is considered for admission to a reserved seat only on the basis of his caste certificate. The written undertaking should contain a 4 clear statement of the petitioner that the petitioner shall not claim any equities whatsoever in the event his claim is invalidated by the scrutiny committee. The undertaking should further indicate that petitioner would forgo his admission in the event his caste claim is invalidated by the scrutiny committee. Learned Counsel for the petitioner states that the undertaking would be submitted by the petitioner on 25th March 2010. 6. Rule is thus made absolute on the above terms with no orders as to costs. 7. Learned Assistant Government Pleader undertakes to communicate this order to the concerned authorities. 8. Copy of this order duly authenticated by the Court Sheristedar of this Court be provided to learned Counsel for the parties to act upon. ( S.V.GANGAPURWALA ) ( P.V.HARDAS ) JUDGE JUDGE (vvr/2214.10wp)