JUDGEMENT
SASHIKANTA MISHRA,J. -
(1.)The petitioner being a student of Class-V of Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Center, Laxmidharpur,
Dhenkanal had applied for admission to Class-VI in
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in the academic session
2021-22. She appeared in the entrance examination conducted pursuant to advertisement issued by Government
of India. The petitioner belongs to the Scheduled Tribe (ST)
Khaira community. She qualified for admission in the said
entrance examination and was declared to have passed in
"Rural SC Category". When it was found that she actually
belongs to ST category, she was refused admission in JNV.
It is stated that the category of the petitioner was wrongly
mentioned as 'SC' instead of 'ST' at the time of filling up of
the online application. It is further stated that such error
was caused because of mistake committed by the Data
Entry Operator (DEO). Since the Rules governing the
admission to JNVs permits interchangeability of SC and ST
candidates, the petitioner contends that she should not
have been denied admission. During pendency of the writ
application, the academic session 2021-22 having expired,
the petitioner amended the writ petition with prayer to direct
the authorities to allow her to take admission in Class-VII
by treating her admission into Class-VI notionally.
(2.)A preliminary counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the JNV, Saranga. It is stated that there is no
vacancy in ST category and that interchangeability is not
possible as all ST seats have been filled up. If the petitioner
is allowed against SC category, the eligible SC candidates in
the available panel will be deprived of their legitimate rights.
(3.)A further affidavit was filed by the JNV stating that as per the Para-b of the NVS Prospectus, reservation of
seats in favour of children belonging to the SC and ST is
provided in proportion to their population in the district
concerned provided that in no district, such reservation will
be less than the national average (15% for SC and 7.5 % for
ST) but subject to maximum of 50% for both the categories
(SC & ST) taken together. It is further stated that these
reservations are interchangeable and over and above the
candidates selected under open merit. It is also stated that
admission process for JNV Selection Test-2021 has been
exhausted upon issue of notification of JNV Selection Test2022-23.
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