Filing Of ITR Instead Of Income Certificate Cannot Deprive Eligible Meritorious Candidate Of Scholarship: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has observed that a mere mistake of filing Income Tax Return (ITR) certificate instead of Income Certificate cannot lead to a situation where an eligible meritorious candidate is deprived of the scholarship, when the two documents prove "same parameters of income requirements".

Justice Prathiba M Singh made the observation while directing the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to grant scholarship to a law student belonging to SC category under the "Central Sector Scholarship Scheme of Top Class Education for SC Students" within eight weeks.

The petitioner, a student of Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, had filed an application on November 14, 2020 along with his father's ITR to avail the scholarship in his first year. On verification, the Ministry rejected the application on September 23, 2021, on the ground that the ITR certificate was invalid. As per the Ministry, the petitioner failed to file the Income Certificate and had instead filed ITR.

After the rejection email, the petitioner forwarded the Income Certificate for processing his application. The Ministry in response said the scholarship was being processed.

However, after some reminders, the Ministry took the stand on November 9, 2021 that the change of documents would not be permissible as it would change the merit list. Thus, the scholarship application was rejected.

The law student again applied for the scholarship for his second year. However, he was not granted scholarship despite his candidature being found to be eligible.

Perusing the scheme in question, Justice Singh said that its purpose and intent is to empower the students of Scheduled Caste and Schedules Tribes to avail of top class education opportunities.

"The eligibility of the present candidate i.e., the Petitioner is not in doubt as is evident from the recommendation of the University that has been placed on record, as also from the Income Tax Returns and the Income Certificate," the court said.

Noting that the petitioner has been found meritorious by the university and was in the merit list, both in the first and second year, the court said:

"Considering these facts and submissions, in the opinion of this Court, a mere discrepancy in filing the Income Tax Return instead of the Income Certificate, despite the two documents evidencing the same parameters of income requirements, cannot lead to a situation where an eligible meritorious candidate is deprived of the scholarship."

Perusing the ITR along with computation of total income, the court said that the documents show that the eligibility is met by the law student and that the income depicted in both documents was exactly the same.

"A hyper technical approach obviously ought not to be taken in this matter. The Petitioner has also been diligent in replying, upon the discrepancies being pointed out by the Respondent. Thus, the Ministry ought to have considered the Petitioner's candidature and ought not to have rejected the Petitioner's application," the court said.

Title: BAJRANG v. MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT & ANR.

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 1178

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