PG admission row: Petitioner contacts CJI kin amid SC heat

NEW DELHI: One of the two petitioners - a brother sister duo - who are facing heat from the Supreme Court for converting to Buddhism to seek admission under minority quota to PG medical course, apparently contacted CJI Surya Kant's brother to express disappointment over the adverse order in what is suspected to be a ploy to get him to recuse himself from the case.

Revealing this during the resumed hearing of the petition filed by them, CJI Kant said in his 23-year-long career as a judge of constitutional court he has handled many such elements who deployed similar means to force the judge to recuse from hearing the case.

When the petitioners' counsel said he was unaware of the unethical act of his clients, the CJI said he would not recuse from the case and warned that such attempts would be dealt with severely under the Contempt of Court Act. The CJI-led bench adjourned the hearing to May 4.

The brother and sister doctor duo from a forward caste family in an affluent village in Haryana, had appeared in NEET-PG examination as 'general category' students. On clearing the exam, they wanted to pursue their PG medical courses in a medical institute in UP, whose claim to be a a minority institution belonging to the Buddhist community has generated a controversy and is under investigation. The duo later got minority certificates from Hisar SDO last year after "converting" to Buddhism.

The bench on Jan 28 had asked the chief secretary of Haryana to inquire into the process and procedure adopted by the SDO in issuing the minority certificate to the brother-sister duo. It had dismissed their plea for admission to the institution.

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