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Rejecting the plea of a Delhi resident, who passed his class XII examination from a Gurgaon school, for reservation in admissions in a Delhi college under the Delhi Diploma Level Technical Education Institutions Act, 2007, the High Court has said that the term ‘Delhi candidate’ means a candidate who has passed the qualifying examination from a school in Delhi.
“The determining factor to avail of the benefit is the geographic location of the school providing the pass certificate of the qualifying examination, as opposed to the domicile of the student,” said Justice Sanjeev Narula in the ruling that was made public Wednesday evening.
The 2007 Act, which provides for 85 per cent reservation to Delhi students, applies to the diploma-level technical education institutions affiliated with the Board of Technical Education which impart diploma-level technical education in engineering and technology, pharmacy, paramedical and other non-engineering courses.
The court passed the judgment on a petition by Dr Himadri Das, a resident of Vasant Kunj, and his minor son for a court order to declare section 3(g) read with section 12(1)(b) of the Act as ultra vires to the extent that it excludes from the reservation the students who are domiciled in Delhi but have completed the class XII from the NCR. However, the challenge to the provision was withdrawn by the petitioner on July 13. The court then passed the decision on the prayer seeking that Delhi residents who have passed qualifying examination within NCR be not denied reservation.
Senior Advocate Sanjoy Ghose, representing the petitioner, told the court that Das’s son is a domicile of Delhi and, initially, took admission at a Vasant Vihar school which provides education only till standard V in its Delhi branch. For pursuing further education from standard VI to standard XII, the students are mandatorily required to attend classes at the school’s branch located in Gurgaon, the court was told.
Ghose argued that the benefit of the reservation should be extended to all such students who were required to attend classes in a branch located outside Delhi, but within NCR. However, the Delhi government argued that ‘Delhi candidate’ in the Act has been defined in clear and unambiguous terms.
The court said the petitioner’s son has cleared the qualifying examination from the Gurgaon school, which is not just a branch located outside Delhi but a separate school as recognized by the Haryana education department. It also said that the law is well-settled that the courts while exercising judicial review cannot entrench into the area earmarked for legislative bodies.
Observing that though the courts can interpret law or remove an apparent lacuna, the court said the petitioner has already given up his challenge to the constitutional validity of the provisions of the 2007 Act. “Once the challenge was given up, the validity has to be presumed, and there can then be no scope to read down the provision or restrict its applicability in order to extend the benefit of reservations as a matter of interpretation of the statute,” it said.
The petition argued that the national capital region is a unique example of inter-state regional planning and development covering districts in Delhi, Haryana, UP and Rajasthan, and that it is a common practice that residents work or attend schools in Gurgaon. It also contended that while disqualified a Delhi resident if they have passed the qualifying examination from outside the national capital if a resident of any other state secures his certificate of qualifying examination from a school in Delhi, he or she becomes fully eligible to avail of the benefits under the 2007 Act.
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