Sportswoman seeks HC to get engg seat

Updated on: Saturday, December 26, 2009

Chennai: The former Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI) with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007, has come to help M S Shailaja , who represented south zone and played at the national level cricket championship under the auspices of the WCAI in 2006, she was not allotted any engineering seat under sports quota, on the ground that the WCAI does not exist any more.

Justice K Chandru, rejecting the justification, has now directed the higher education secretary and the secretary for the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission-2009 to the girl within two weeks.

M S Shailaja, a cricketer, is a most backward community candidated who had participated in various matches including a national level tournament under the WCAI in May 2006. Having scored 1001 marks out of 1200, she applied for an engineering admission under sports quota.

She, however, did not submit a certificate from the WCAI in Form No. II to the selection authorities, as the WCAI had by then been merged with the BCCI.

The engineering selection committee rejected her claim under sports quota, on two grounds -- one, she did not furnish a certificate from WCAI in a prescribed format; two, the admission process was over in July 2009 itself, and that there was no provision for waiting list ir re-counselling.

The girl's counsel argued that it was not her fault that she could not submit the certificate, and added that she had furnished a certificate from the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) in her support.

Justice Chandru, concurring with the submissions, Shailaja cannot be denied an engineering seat merely because she could not furnish a certificate from the WCAI. Noting that she ought to have been granted full marks, the judge said the authorities cannot now claim that the admission process is over.

"The object of granting certificate is only to encourage sports and an eminent sportsperson coming under the category. Hence, it is wrong on the part of the authorities to deny her a seat," he said, and directed the authorities to allot Shylaja a seat under sports quota within two weeks.

Sportswoman seeks HC to get engg seat

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