The state’s controversial move on changing domicile conditions for admissions to engineering and other courses to benefit ‘sons-of-the-soil’ has now been challenged in court. A septuagenarian lawyer, G C Singh, has moved to the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court against the decision.
The court on Thursday issued notices to the state government, Delhi-based All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Mumbai-based Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) and one more respondent. The high court has asked for a reply from the respondents before April 21. The judges also told the government pleader Nitin Sambre to seek instructions from the government.
The petitioner, citing TOI report, informed the court that the government will consider quota in admissions to courses like engineering, pharmacy and hotel management, for only those candidates whose parents too are domiciled in the state either by birth or through permanent residence. These changes to be effective for centralised admission process (CAP) for MHT-CET-2010 would effectively bar candidates with even one of the parents not domiciled in Maharashtra. The changes in the basic eligibility conditions have been mentioned in Clause 3 on Page No. 9 of MHT-CET-2010 brochure published by the DMER.
TOI had reported that if a candidate who clears his SSC and HSC from the state but was not born here, and his parents are also not domiciled in Maharashtra, would not be eligible for the CAP. Therefore, all roads to admissions to government or university-aided institutions are shut for them.
