A big slip between the cup and the lip

CHENNAI: So near, yet so far. That sums up the recent experience for K Kanimozhi, a poor Dalit girl and a wannabe medical graduate. She also is the first person in her family to aspire to pursue higher education.It all began after Kanimozhi submitted her MBBS application form for a medical seat under the SC quota.As the cut-off marks for the SC community was 188.50, while she had secured 189.25, she was confident of making it.However, in the merit list published by the Selection Panel in its website on June 22, her name was missing.On verification, she was told that she was disqualified as she had failed to attach her community certificate along with application form.Failing to convince the authorities to review her case, she filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court, asserting that she had attached her certificate along with the application form.The authorities, she argued, could have misplaced it.Her senior counsel A Thiagarajan submitted that for admission in engineering colleges, students are given an opportunity to rectify the defects in rejected application forms. That window of opportunity was not offered for medical seats and Kanimozhi’s application was rejected without informing her of the defect, which was arbitrary, he contended.Advocate-General A Navaneethakrishnan submitted that the authorities could not be blamed for the rejection as they had strictly followed clause 1(b) and 14(a) of the prospectus, which did not provide for any communication to the applicant and rectification of the defects at a later stage.After satisfying himself with the averments of Thiagarajan, Justice D Hariparanthaman on July 7 directed the authorities to include Kanimozhi’s name in the merit list and permit her to participate in the counselling scheduled to commence the next day. The judge also directed the authorities to effect necessary changes to clause 14 of the prospectus to help the students in the future.Within a couple of hours, Additional Special Government Pleader P Sanjai Gandhi moved a division bench comprising Justices E Dharma Rao and M Venugopal, with an appeal. He argued that the order of the single judge would upset the counselling, set in motion a chain of reaction and open the floodgate for other candidates who were similarly placed. And the bench stayed the operation of the orders of the single judge.Perhaps Kanimozhi’s dream of becoming a medical practitioner will just stay that way.