V. Ramaswami, C.J(Oral):— This is an appeal against the order of the learned Single Judge of this Court dismissing the writ petition filed by the appellant for the issue of writ of certiorari to quash the order Annexure P/6.
2. The appellant while working as Laboratory Technician in the Government College at Patiala, applied for admission to the course of B.Sc
3. Medical Technology (Laboratory) in pursuance of an advertisement calling for such applications made in June 1985. The course is of two years duration. The appellant having been selected joined the course, passed the first year and while he had completed almost nine months of the second year's course, by the impugned order in Annexure P/6, he was withdrawn from the course stating that it was done on administrative grounds. In the return filed by the Government the reason stated for withdrawal was, though they have not stated this in withdrawing the order itself, that he has furnished a fake or false community certificate claiming that he is a Scheduled Caste candidate and that without production of a Scheduled Caste certificate, he would not have been selected and that therefore, he was not eligible to continue and complete the course. The point raised by the learned counsel for the appellant was that before he was considered as not belonging to the Scheduled Caste community, he was not given an opportunity to show that he belonged to that community and, therefore, the principles of natural justice had been violated. In this case, it appears that when he joined the service as Laboratory Technician sometime in 1975, he, declared that he belonged to a Backward Class community named as ‘Ahir’ Caste. In the application for admission to the course of B.Sc Medical Technology (Laboratory), he had stated that he belongs to a ‘Jat Sikh’ community and that against Serial No. 7 where he was asked to state whether he belongs to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, he had stated “No”. It is seen from the return filed by the Government that the Selection Committee did not select him as a general category candidate on the ground that he had not secured the minimum percentage of marks required for qualifying the admission. At that stage, the appellant seems to have produced a certificate from the Additional District Magistrate, Bhatinda, to the effect that he belongs to a community called ‘Ramdasia’ Caste which is declared as a Scheduled Caste. It may also be mentioned that three seats were reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates and there was no other candidate who could be selected under that category and, therefore, they have to go as a general category quota or should go waste. But for some reason or the other, the Selection Committee accepted the certificate produced by the appellant and admitted him as a Scheduled Caste candidate. As already stated, he had completed his first year and while he was in the second year, the withdrawal order came. The Division Bench admitted the writ petition and permitted him to appear for the second year examination but directed the result to be with-held pending disposal of the writ petition.
4. It is seen from the facts stated above that the appellant had claimed in the application form that he did not belong to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. When he was not selected under the General Category, he produced a certificate that he belongs to a Scheduled Caste. It is not correct to say that the certificate is fake certificate. It is a genuine certificate so to say. However, it is claimed by the Government that he does not belong to a Scheduled Caste community. It is in that form, the certificate produced by him is said to be false. We have to take note of the fact that the certificate produced by the appellant was signed by not only the Naib Tahsildar but also by the Tahsildar and the Additional District Magistrate, Bhatinda. Normally, one could take note of this and proceeded on the assumption that he belonged to a Scheduled Caste community. But if the certificate is given in respect of a person who does not really belonged to the Scheduled Caste, not only the authorities who had issued the certificate are guilty but also the person in whose favour the certificate was issued could not rely on that certificate for any purpose. However, in the circumstances of this particular case, we are of the view that, though we do not want to hold as a matter of law that the appellant is eligible to continue his studies on the basis of the selection made as a Scheduled Caste candidate, on equitable grounds we should permit the candidate to complete the course especially because the appellant has passed the first year examination and had also completed nine months in the second year's course before the writ petition was filed and three months after the writ petition was filed in pursuance of the order of this Court and he has written the examination. It would be a great hardship to the appellant if ultimately we have to retrace the whole step and declare that whatever he has done in the two years is not valid and even if we had to do it as required by law, we may not be justified in doing it without going into the question as to whether really the certificate given by the Tahsildar and counter-signed by the Additional District Magistrate was false or not. It is true, as the learned counsel for the Government has pointed out that the affidavit filed in support of the petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India itself is vague and does not specifically say that the appellant belongs to a Scheduled Caste community. As noticed earlier, in the application filed for admission, he has mentioned that he belongs to a ‘Jat Sikh’ community. In the light of this fact in permitting the appellant to produce the certificate at a later stage, even the Selection Committee could not be complimented. In the circumstances, therefore, as there are so many other issues involved in this case, we think it desirable that we should leave the question as it is and permit the appellant to complete the course as he has done already.
5. There will be an order accordingly in the letters patent appeal and the authorities are now directed to declare the result of the second year examination written by the appellant. However, there will be no order as to costs.
6. Appeal allowed.