A young doctor’s career has been rescued by the country’s top court, but her father has been made to pay the price.
The Supreme Court has regularised the MBBS degree of a student whose admission was secured through a Scheduled Tribe certificate later declared invalid. The Court made it clear, however, that the father’s deception would not go unpunished—ordering him to deposit ₹5 lakh in the National Defence Fund.
The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan noted that the daughter should not see her years of hard work erased because of her father’s actions. She entered medical school in 2016 using a certificate declaring her as belonging to the Mannervarlu Scheduled Tribe. That certificate, issued in 2009, was later cancelled when officials discovered her father’s and uncle’s claims to the same status had been rejected decades earlier.
By the time the cancellation came in 2022, she had already completed her MBBS and was enrolled in postgraduate studies under the general category. The High Court had dismissed her plea, calling the case a “glaring example of patent fraud.”
The Supreme Court agreed that fraud was involved but took a pragmatic stance: striking down her admission now would destroy her future. “Here is a meritorious student who has finished her MBBS and is pursuing further studies. If we dismiss this appeal, that will be the end of her entire career,” the bench observed.
The Court stressed that this was a one-time relief, made possible only because the father filed an undertaking that neither his daughter nor any family member would ever claim Scheduled Tribe benefits again.
With that assurance, the Court ordered her MBBS admission to be regularised but confirmed the High Court’s ruling on all other aspects. The father, whom the bench described as chiefly responsible for the mess, must now pay the penalty within two months.
