Directions were sought to admit the petitioner under Maharashtra's 85% quota from the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes if she find place in the order of merit in the state's Counselling of the NEET UG- 2021 for admission to the professional medical course as per her preference in order of merit of Scheduled Castes.
"Your petition requires us to say all the Constitution benches, right from Marri Chandra Rao, are wrong. You are not an SC in Maharashtra. It is a hard case because she did her 12th class in Maharashtra, she will not be treated as domicile in Haryana. Otherwise, the place where you will get your entitlement in a reserved seat is in Haryana…We must compliment you because right up in the first para you have disclosed to us that that is why you came to us, that was very fair of you, otherwise we would have to read 20 pages to realise this is the point," Justice D. Y. Chandrachud told Advocate Nitin Meshram, for the petitioner.
"While interpreting the Constitution in Marri Chandra Rao, the court did not consider the implication of Articles 330 and clause (5) of 332. They have misunderstood comments by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in the constituent assembly. It was with regard to autonomous Districts and not Article 341...," submitted Mr. Mishram.
"In a bench of two, we cannot cast doubt on consistent benches. No reason to place it before a three-judge bench also. There is no reason to cast doubt…it is a very well settled law," said Justice Chandrachud.
Dictating the order, the bench recorded, "The field sought to be canvassed in these proceedings is governed by the judgments of the Constitution benches in several decisions, which have been fairly placed at the forefront of the synopsis. Hence, the petition is dismissed."
The plea averred that the petitioner was born and brought up and finished her entire schooling in Mumbai. Her both parents are migrants in Mumbai. They belong to scheduled castes community of chamar caste in the State of Haryana and therefore, the petitioner is not entitled to be recognised as Scheduled Castes in the State of Maharashtra due to interpretation placed upon Article 341 of the Constitution by three Constitution Benches of this Court in Marri Chandra Shekhar Rao v. Dean, Seth G.S. Medical College, reported as (1990) 3 SCC 130, Action Committee on Issue of Caste Certificate to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the State of Maharashtra v. Union of India, reported as(1994) 5 Supreme Court Cases 24 and Bir Singh v. Delhi Jal Board, reported as (2018) 10 SCC 312.
"Hence this petition is filed by the petition seeking Scheduled Caste recognition in the State of Maharashtra citing that all the above Judgments did not consider the Constitution as a whole and therefore, goes against Articles 15 (4) (5), 17, 19 (d) (e), 19 (5) (6), 32, 35 (a) (ii), 46, 73, 81 (1) (a), 81 (2) (a), 141, 142, 145 (3), 162, 245, 246, 248, 249, 250, 246 (4), 250, 252, 254, 341, 366 (24) of the Constitution for reasons given and grounds taken in the writ petition. That the petitioner is an aspirant of graduate Medical Education and therefore, just appeared the UG – NEET- 2021 wherein she obtained 409 marks and secured 181330 NEET All India Rank and 13541 Category Rank in Scheduled Castes. Though the petitioner appeared the UG – NEET – 2021 from the Scheduled Caste category, she will not be eligible for reservation for Scheduled Castes under 85% State quota in the State Maharashtra and that she will also not be eligible for reservation for Scheduled Castes under 85% State quota in the State Haryana because she has done/pursued her class 12th studies (HSSC) from Mumbai, Maharashtra and therefore, she is not entitled to reservation for Scheduled Castes in both the States under State's 85% quota," it was stated.