Antop Hill resident Bhagyashree Kadam has moved the high court after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation rejected her application for the post of sub-engineer on the grounds that she has not studied Marathi in her Board exams.

"Is it my fault that my father is in a paramilitary force? Even after having a domicile of Maharashtra, I am being denied a job at the BMC," her counsel told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday.

Kadam, a civil engineering from University of Pune, was schooled in Kendriya Vidhyalayas (CBSE Board) across the country as her father has a transferable job, with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

Marathi is the mother tongue of the Jalgaon native, but she hasn't studied it formally.

The civic body's lawyers, Ram Apte and Sagar Patil, said they were unable to help Kadam, who is currently pursuing M Tech at the University of Mumbai. "The language rule is a prerequisite and cannot be relaxed for one applicant. We have sympathy for the petitioner but we cannot help her."

Kadam's advocate, Karanti LC, cited on corporation and state government rules and said that employees could prove their fluency in a particular language three years after their employment. He said Kadam had already enrolled for SSC Board Marathi exams in March, so the corporation should be directed to accept her application form.

But Apte said: "We have received some 40,000 applications. Rules cannot be changed for just one applicant."

A division bench of Justices BR Gavai and NJ Jamadar has directed the civic body to file its reply to the plea in three weeks.