Case Law Details
Bajrang Vs Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (Delhi High Court)
The Petitioner joined Respondent No.2 – Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (University) in the five years law course. He belongs to the Scheduled Caste category and wishes to avail of the Central Sector Scholarship Scheme of Top Class Education for SC Students (hereinafter “Scheme”).
The case of the Petitioner is that he had to upload certain documents to avail of the said scholarship and on 14th November, 2020, an application was filed by him along with his father’s Income Tax Return to avail of the said scholarship. Upon verification, the Ministry rejected the application vide email dated 23rd September, 2021, on the ground that the Income Tax Return Certificate was invalid. The reason for the same was that the Petitioner did not file the `Income Certificate’ but instead had filed the Income Tax Return with the Acknowledgement Receipt.
The manner in which the Scheme functions is that the applications are received by the Ministry and thereafter, based upon the applications received, slots are allotted by the Ministry for a fixed number of scholarship recipients at each University. The Scheme is restricted to the top students in the inter se merit list based on the admission criteria. The University has confirmed in the recommendation set out herein above that the Petitioner was selected in the Merit List of 2020-21.
8. The Petitioner has been found meritorious by the University. Both in the first year and the second year he is on the merit list. 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.
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