The Bombay High Court (HC) has directed Mumbai University (MU) to grant admission in the LLM course, providing relief to a law graduate belonging to the Other Backward Class (OBC). “There is no such requirement that the non-creamy layer (NCL) certificate application must precede the registration process nor is it stated anywhere by how many days it should so precede it. Indeed, there can be no such requirement,” said the bench.
Petitioner had challenged MU's decision to not grant admission
The HC was hearing a petition filed by Gaurav Dhaye challenging the decision of MU refusing to grant him admission as the date of application for the NCL certificate was the same as the last date of registration for the LLM course.
According to the plea, Dhaye applied for admission to the two-year LLM program under the OBC category at MU. He cleared the LLM common entrance test. The last date for completing the online registration process for document verification was Dec 28, 2022. While uploading his documents, he realised that his NCL certificate was valid only till Mar 31, 2022. He immediately applied for renewal of NCL and was issued a valid receipt by the state government on Dec 28. However, MU did not allow him to rectify the error on grounds that the date of receipt for the NCL certificate could not be the same as the date of admission.
Refusal is clearly wrong and cannot be sustained: HC
Dismissing the argument, the HC said that if Dhaye's claim was taken at face value, “then the refusal is clearly wrong and cannot be sustained”.
Dhaye had sought admission to Group V (criminal law and criminal administration). The court was informed by MU that there was no vacant seat in Group V. However, four seats are available in Group VI (environment and legal order).
The MU further informed that there are 83 candidates who either did not attach an NCL certificate or had outdated NCL certificates at the time of application. The bench noted that there is a difference between Dhaye's case and other candidates as he actually had a valid receipt for the fresh NCL certificate. “The petitioner today does possess an NCL certificate duly issued to him,” the court added.
The petitioner gave an undertaking that he will secure admission to LLM Group VI. Allowing his plea, the court clarified that Dhaye's admission will be in Group VI.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
