Orphan certificates to be granted to NEET candidates within 7 days: Bombay High Court
The decision that the respondents are directed to provide orphan certificates to two NEET aspirants for their application in the entrance examination for MBBS degree is upheld by the High Court of Bombay through the learned bench led by HONOURABLE JUSTICE REVATI MOHITE DERE & HONOURABLE JUSTICE MADHAV J. JAMDAR in the case of The Nest India Foundation Versus State of Maharashtra & Ors. (INTERIM APPLICATION (L) NO.14627 OF 2022 IN WRIT PETITION (L) NO.2532 OF 2022).
Brief facts of the case are that the Respondent No.3-District Women and Child Development Office, Mumbai issued a notice on 1st July 2021 to the Applicant to shift 31 orphan children from the orphanage for girls, looked after and owned by the Applicant, on the basis that it is not a registered child care institution under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and the Maharashtra State Judicial Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2018. The contentions of the Applicant are that they had applied several times for registration since 2010, but did not receive any response from the Respondents no. 2 and 3. Thus, this petition has been filed, challenging the order.
Along with this, the brief facts about the Interim application are that two orphans, Ms Roshani Deepak Kunchikarve and Ms. Vaishali Harish Joshi from the Applicant’s orphan home had filed for the issuance of an orphan certificate for the purpose of applying in the NEET examination, which is the entrance examination for MBBS degree. Even after applying and making several rounds of the office along with making several phone calls, the Respondents have not issues them a certificate. Thus, this application is filed as a relief.
The Counsel for Petitioner, Dr. Abhinav Chandrachud with Ms. Unnati Ghia i/b Rohit Sharma contended that there is a pressing need to provide orphan certificates because the deadline to apply for NEET 2022 in order to be admitted to the MBBS degree course is May 6, 2022, which has been postponed for a short time. As a result, he requested that the requested reliefs be granted. The counsel for State, Ms. P. H. Kantharia, argued that there were certain shortcomings in the application of the Applicants.
The Hon’ble judges have noticed that even though it was pleaded that the Applications had certain shortcomings, they could not be pointed out and hence, the court directed the respondents to grant an orphan certificate to both the Applicants Ms Roshani Deepak Kunchikarve and Ms. Vaishali Harish Joshi within 7 days, so that they could apply in the NEET examination.
JUDGEMENT REVIEWED BY- ATIVA GOSWAMI