There is a slight glimmer of hope for MBA applicants to Maharashtra b-schools caught in the domicile imbroglio at the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) office in Mumbai. For those candidates who have not submitted Maharashtra domicile certificates while applying for admission to various management courses and face omission, there just could be an extension of deadline.

A decision in this regard is however, yet to be firmed up.

The deadline for receiving applications from candidates applying to different professional courses in the state was May 31, 2011. That day itself, the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) officials found that a huge number of candidates had not attached their domicile certificates with the forms. A domicile certificate is a legal document certifying that an individual has been residing in that state for at least 10 years and is used to implement state-level quotas in higher education admissions.

While the exact number of candidates who submitted incomplete forms is still not clear, the number was huge enough to irritate DTE Director SK Mahajan. The DTE officers told PaGaLGuY that the blame lies squarely on the candidates to furnish complete information and they must read rules before submitting application.

The decision about whether or not to extend the deadline for these candidates will be taken on June 17 or 18, which according to the DTE calender are days reserved for grievances.

Dr Sunil Bhamare, Officer on Special Duty at DTE said that a solution keeping in mind the availability of seats would be worked out at the end. As for the extension of date, Dr Bhamare said, We cannot decide anything now. We will have a meeting within a couple of days. If we extend the dates, other qualified admission candidates might take us to the court.”

When PaGaLGuY visited the DTE office twice this week, both times, there were at least 20-30 candidates lined up with their parents awaiting news about domicile certificates. On both the days, candidates were seen crowding around DTE analyst NB Patil. Patil told PaGaLGuY that the rule on domicile certificates had been in use since last year. Besides, the rules have been freshly written on our brochures and on our website since January 27, 2011 when we started the admissions process. How is that so many candidates claim to not know of it?

Patil added that the same information had also been published in various English as well as vernacular newspapers.

But candidates seemed totally clueless. Some of them told this correspondent that the rule about domicile is hidden deep in the middle of the CET admission brochure which is too thick a book for anyone to go through. Who will actually read a brochure as thick as this inside out? asked a candidate.

The receptionist at the DTE office who has a brochure on his desk was showing its contents to the candidates. He kept referring to the pages which had information about the domicile certificate and also dates for submission of forms.

The receptionist however added, “Yes, it is a thick brochure and important dates have been written in the middle of the book. But still, the candidates should have read the book thoroughly. It is their life, their career.”

Patil was seen constantly assuring the aggrieved candidates and parents. He was heard telling them that the meetings (for grievances) which would be held on June 17-18 will be the deciding factor. Adil Deshmukh, an MBA aspirant who has not submitted his domicile certificate said, “I can’t do anything now except look forward to the grievance dates.”

Another MBA aspirant, Nirmal Menon, who scored 92 percentile in the CET was also disappointed. “I don’t think I will get into a good college. I don’t have much hope. Yet, I am looking forward to the provisional merit list on June 16.

Sumit Baskar, a candidate under the Other Backward Castes quota had submitted the domicile certificate but couldn’t submit the non-creamy layer certificate on time and said that many of his friends were in the same kind of soup.

Explaining the importance of a domicile certificates, Dr Bhamare said that it was made mandatory because some candidates from outside Maharashtra were managing to get MBA seats as Maharashtra natives, while those from within the state were being left out.

A domicile certificate can be procured at any magistrate court or any tehsildar offices for Rs 15. It is furnished to those who have been staying in the state for ten years or more and ones domicile can be proved by submitting birth certificate, school leaving certificate, ration card or passport.

Some candidates at DTE seemed so desperate that they were even willing to bribe the right people to avail of the certificate. One of them who did not wish to be named said that it usually took two to three weeks or even more to obtain a domicile certificate, but with a bribe of Rs 15,000, all it takes is a day.

Editor’s note: This obviously is a story for the consumption of Maharashtra CET students. We would like to remind the others that they have the choice to not comment for the heck of it.