In fact, the student Manan Vidyut Shroff, who filed the petition through his mother Hina Shroff , has challenged the constitutional validity of the rule 4.8 claiming it was arbitrary and unreasonable and as such should be struck down. Counsel for the petitioners V M Thorat also argued that in any case it was merit that decided the admission.

A division bench of Justice Ashok Agarwal and Justice D K Deshmukh while admitting the petition, in an interim relief directed that the state accept the application form of Shroff and consider his admission on merit, ignoring the rule 4.8.

The state of Maharashtra which will be implementing the CET formedical admissions to various colleges for the first time this year, has introduced a new rule 4.8 whereby it is compulsory that students who have passed the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) or Std XII examinations from Maharashtra should also have passed the SSC examins or Std X from the state. Only then would the student be allowed to appear for the CET.

According to the petition, the rules were relaxed in favour of children of Central government employees or employees of a Government of India (GoI) undertaking where the parents were transferred to Maharashtra state and had joined before the last date prescribed for the submission of CET application forms. The conditions were also relaxed for children of state government employees who have been transferred back to the state or have returned from deputation to the Central government or GoI undertaking. There were similar relaxations for children of parents who were domiciled in Maharashtra. The rules were then changed in 1997-98 and it was in July 1997that this clause of compulsory SSC examinations were introduced for the students. Also, due to inadequate publicity of the changes, students who had entered the Std X in 1997 were unaware of the change.

Manan Shroff, who passed his SSC from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in 1997 from Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh (AP), claimed he was unaware of this clause. He argued that had he known that such a clause were to be introduced, he would have taken an admission in some school in Maharashtra after completing his Std IX in AP.

Shroff, born and brought up in Mumbai, had to leave the city in 1993 since he was suffering from allergic cold and became prone to getting secondary bacterial infection. He had to take heavy antibiotics. Following his physician's advice that he need to get away from the humid conditions of Mumbai, Shroff took admission in Std VII at the Vidyapith School at Shripuram Market Palli, Nalgonda. This school in AP enabled him to get cured while pursuing his education.

Afterbeing cured of his ailments and passing SSC exams in 1997, Shroff returned to Mumbai with an application form for CET seeking admission in the T N Medical College on April 13, 1999. However, citing the changed rule, the dean refused to accept his form.

Shroff's counsel Thorat argued that the changed rule discriminated between students whose parents were in the state government services and others who were in private employment, as well as took care of students of parents who worked in government services not domiciled in the state. He pointed out that there was no link between the rule and the objective of the admission which was to ensure that best students appear for the CET adding that the CBSE examinations were the same throughout the state.

The bench then directed that Shroff be allowed to appear for the CET, and based on his performance, admission should be granted to medical and dental courses in the state.