Over a dozen of candidates have been alleged to be involved in undergoing religious conversion to get admission to MBBS course through minority quota in a medical college in Meerut violating the state’s unlawful conversion of Religious Act 2021 (UPPUCRA 2021) rules.
Over a dozen medical aspirants
who have qualified National Eligibility cum Entrance Test have undergone religious conversion to secure admission in the MBBS course in Uttar Pradesh. Reportedly, these candidates have been allegedly involved in undergoing religious conversion to get admission to an MBBS course through minority quota in a medical college in Meerut violating the state’s unlawful conversion of Religious Act 2021 (UPPUCRA 2021) rules.
The students who belong to different regions of Uttar Pradesh also include candidates from Delhi and Maharashtra. Reportedly, authorities from these areas have been informed about the matter and they are investigating the matter simultaneously.
These candidates came under scrutiny for manipulating their documents and quota certificates in order to secure admission in the MBBS programme in medical college in Uttar Pradesh. The matter has been reported as the circumvention of the state’s Unlawful Conversion of Religious Act 2021. Reportedly, seven admissions have been cancelled by the board with seven voluntarily withdrawn. Along with this, six candidates from outside Uttar Pradesh have forwarded their documents to their respective states for verification. The Directorate of Medical Education has instructed to verify the documents thoroughly for admission purposes.
Undergoing religious conversion for the sake of admission to the MBBS course in a minority medical college in Meerut, over a dozen candidates violated provisions of the state’s Unlawful Conversions of Religious Act 2021 (UPPUCRA-2021), according to the authorities who are looking into the issue.
The candidates belonged to Prayagraj, Varanasi, Bijnor, Meerut, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar (all in Uttar Pradesh), New Delhi and Maharashtra. Apart from the Uttar Pradesh home department, the police in New Delhi and Maharashtra were informed about the development.
A total of 20 candidates were under the scanner after they were allegedly found using religious conversion certificates to get an MBBS seat while violating the provisions laid down in the Act, the officials said. While the counseling board cancelled the admission of seven of them, seven others quit on their own. The remaining six are from outside Uttar Pradesh and their documents have been sent to the respective states for verification before action.
Some of those who got admission in the first round of NEET-UG-2024 counselling ranked around 12 lakh (1.2 million), which was too low a rank to have earned them an MBBS seat at least in the first round of counselling in the normal course. Till last year, this medical college used to admit a maximum of four candidates in the first round.
“Alarmed with the rise in the number of minority candidates, we took (up) the screening of documents. What came to knowledge was these candidates had attained minority status a few weeks before,” said director general medical education and training Kinjal Singh, who got the documents verified from the respective districts within 48 hours, to ensure swift action.
Section 8 (1) of the UPPUCRA-2021 says, “One who desires to convert his/her religion, shall give a declaration in the form prescribed in Schedule-l at least sixty days in advance, to the District Magistrate or the Additional District Magistrate, specially authorized by District Magistrate, that he wishes to convert his/her religion on his/her own and with his/her free consent and without any force, coercion, undue influence or allurement.”
The Act also has a provision for the person or organisation that converts someone on religious grounds. The Act says the person who performs the conversion ceremony for converting any person of one religion to another religion, shall give one month’s advance notice.
“Nothing of this sort was followed, which clearly indicated a violation of the Act. Hence, we initiated the process with the department of minority welfare, Uttar Pradesh, and the home department,” said Singh.
In colleges with a minority status, about half the seats go to minority candidates. So even if the rank is not high enough, the candidate with a minority status can get a seat in a minority institution.
Director, minority welfare, J Reebha on Friday said, “Minority certificates of all the candidates were declared null-and-void and have been cancelled.”
Asked what follows the revelation of misuse of minority certificates, joint director, minority welfare and waqf department, Raghvendra Pratap Singh said, “Incorrect information or procedure followed to obtain a minority certificate stands for action. Process to fix accountability will be followed.”
He said the onus of submitting a fake or forged document is primarily on the candidate who has not followed the rules, and the officer who issued the certificate shall also be held liable for the erroneous issue of the certificate.
The directorate of medical education has now alerted its counselling committee to further investigate the issue and check the certificates being submitted in various categories.
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