HC quashes cancellation of seat allotment to freedom fighter’s dependent

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad high court has observed that the “law cannot exclude freedom fighters domiciled outside Uttar Pradesh from their status of a freedom fighter.”

Making this and other observations, the court directed the authorities at Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College (GSVM), Kanpur, to give admission to a freedom fighter’s dependent in the medical college as he had cleared the National Eligibility Entrance Test Undergraduate-2018 (NEET UG-2018) in the reserved category.

The candidate was earlier denied admission because the certificate of him being the dependent of a freedom fighter was issued by an authority of another state, and not Uttar Pradesh.

He was residing outside UP at the time.Disposing of the petition filed by Anmol Deep, the bench comprising justice Pankaj Mithal and justice Saral Srivastava quashed the order dated July 10, 2018 by which the seat allotment to him was cancelled.

The bench directed the college authorities to allow the petitioner to take admission in the MBBS course.

On the college not accepting the freedom fighter dependent certificate issued by another state, the bench observed, “A freedom fighter living in any place in India will remain a freedom fighter and he does not lose his status by shifting his domicile from one place to another.

The nation recognises him to be a freedom fighter irrespective of his place of birth or residence, etc. If the above pragmatic view is not taken, a single person may be a freedom fighter in one place of living and an ordinary citizen at some other place.

His status will be fluctuating, creating confusion as the same person cannot have the dual character of a freedom fighter as well as of a normal citizen.”

The bench allowed the benefit of reservation by virtue of being the dependent of a freedom fighter to the petitioner for admission in the MBBS course of the Kanpur-based medical college.