The Bombay High Court has instructed  the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for granting permission to Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena for holding their annual Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in Dadar, Mumbai for this 2022. 

A bench comprising of Justice RD Dhanuka and Justice Kamal Khata have quashed an order passed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) which has denied  permission for holding the rally. 

The Court believed that the decision taken by BMC was not bonafide and granted  permission to Shiv Sena to hold the rally at Shivaji Park between October 2 to 6, 2022. 

The Court said that the police was at liberty to record the entire event and in the event there was any untoward behaviour, the same can be a ground for refusing permission the next year. 

The Bench also said that BMC rejected the permission but more importantly not explain why they did not consider the application between the period of August 22 and September 21, 2022. 

The order clearly said that the application could not be decided for so long and the police report was called for after the writ petition was served. In our view BMC’s action is a clear process of abuse of law. 

The Court also said that we are invoking powers under Article 226 of the Constitution. In this case, BMC has misused power by refusing to grant permission in view of another application. 

It further added that this case calls for interference and grant of permission. Permission can be granted on various conditions. Petitioner will have to comply with conditions” the order recorded. 

During 2016,the BMC commissioner had been directed to allow holding of the Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park, and on the same basis the permission was granted till 2019. The rally was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plea mentions that as per the procedure,the party in 2022 applied to BMC on August 26,2022 for permission.

However, the permission was not granted despite lapse of more than a month. This compelled the petitioner to approach High Court for appropriate directions and also to know the ground of rejection.

The Central government has informed the Supreme Court that with the existing regulations the migration of foreign medical students to India is not permitted and the accommodations made in this regard were only on account of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Central Government of India had earlier filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in a batch of pleas which were filed by the Indian students who have been evacuated from Ukraine to get permission for continuing their medical studies in India.

In an affidavit, the Ministry of Health said that the petitioners who are asking for accommodating them in colleges are the ones who secured poor in NEET exams andthus moved to Ukraine.

it was added that these students cannot be put in any private medical colleges, as they are only rank base colleges. It also added that with the marks and ranking, these colleges are difficult to get; also the fees is too high for many students.

Only Relaxations have been made were for final-year medical students on account of exigencies, and accommodating other students on the same grounds will hamper the standards of medical education in India besides violating the law of the land, the affidavit states.

The petitioners had said that a public notice issued by the Central government to accommodate foreign students stuck in war-torn countries in global universities was not applicable to Indian colleges.

The Health Ministry’s affidavit said that the notice cannot be understood as ‘back-door entry’ to Indian medical institutes.

The sudden war clouds led to evacuation of many students who have literally no option left after the unfortunate events in Ukraine.

Many petitions have been filed in this regard.An important petition was also filed through advocate Ashwarya Sinha, who said that all the 14000 student who have been evacuated are completely lost when it comes to education. He requests the court to protect their fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India have become illusory.

The advocate also added that petitioners(read students) are going through a tough phase as their entire career hangs in ambiguity as there seems no peace restoration in the war torn country so far.

The petition said that “The unfortunate situation which has transpired in the present case is that the Petitioners are neither in a position to resume their education at their respective institutions in Ukraine nor permitted to continue their education at institutions in India under the present regulations.

The petitioners have also asked for issuing an appropriate direction under section 45 of National Medical commission Act to frame guidelines for migration of Indian students as a one time measure for the similar academic year so that their career is not jeopardised.

The petition also looks forward to formulate guidelines under Section 46 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019; for appropriate direction upon the respondents to provide adequate infrastructural/academic and financial support to the evacuated students for the continuation of medical education.