Mumbai: HC relief to doctor in 'forged' caste certificate case

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday did not set aside the admission or medical degrees of a doctor who graduated in 2015 but directed him to deposit a penalty of almost Rs 11 lakh as imposed in 2019 after his caste certificate was found to be ‘forged’.

A division bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and RN Laddha noted that it was not a proper case to take away the degree, since under the rules because of his admission a seat of an ST candidate cannot be said to be lost.

Citing the rules, the HC said that when a person opts for admission in a reserved category and the marks obtained in the qualifying examination are sufficient to admit him from an open category, then his admission will have to be considered from an open category and not a reserved category.

"One seat in college where he was eligible for an open seat shall be earmarked for a candidate belonging to the reserved category," said HC.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by Khan Mohammed in 2020 challenging a letter from KEM college directing him to deposit the penalty amount as he had submitted a forged validity certificate of Scheduled Tribe while securing admission to the MBBS course in 2010-11.

It also stated that a proposal would be submitted to the Maharashtra University of Health Science, Nashik to cancel his MBBS degree.

After his MBBS, Mohammed did his post-graduation in Ophthalmology as an open category pursuant to NEET-PG 2017 examination.