Fate of 20 SC students hangs in balance after SC certificate row

 The social justice and empowerment department has cancelled admission of 20 students this year. It has pointed out that the backwardcaste certificates were either incorrect or did not apply in the state. Ironically, these certificates were issued by officials of the same department. Naturally, the students are crying foul as some of them have already put in one to two years in a professional course from which they have been removed. While there have been reports of some students submitting bogus caste certificates, there are students who insist that they have been wronged by the social justice department. One such case is Nisha Sindhania, a first year student from Gandhidham studying aeronautical engineering in Vasad Engineering College near Vadodara. Nisha got admission in the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. The certificate was issued by the social justice and empowerment department. A year later, the officials have found that while her caste falls in the SC category in Rajasthan. In Gujarat, it falls in the open category and hence her admission should be cancelled. 



"If they had known this and not given me the certificate, I would have got admission in another branch in the open category. They cannot punish me by wasting a year for their own mistake," said Nisha. Sources say there have been at least two cases where students were first told their certificates had a problem, only to be told they could carry on with their admission as all was in place.