NIKHIL HIMTHANI Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution, the Petitioner has made a grievance that his fundamental right to equality in the matter of admission in post-graduate medical course in the State quota in the medical colleges in the State of Uttarakhand guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution has been violated by Respondent Nos. 1 and 2.

(2.) The facts very briefly are that the Petitioner is a permanent resident of Delhi and had qualified in the All India Pre-Medical Test conducted by the Central Hoard of Secondary Education (for short 'the CBSE') for the 15% seats reserved for the All India quota. He was admitted in the MBBS course in the year 2007 in the Medical College at Haldwani in the State of Uttarakhand. He completed his MBBS course in March, 2012 and thereafter completed one year of internship in March, 2013. The Petitioner then appeared in the NEET Examination, 2013 conducted by the Medical Council of India (for short 'the MCI') for admission to post-graduate medical courses in India and qualified in the examination and claims to have secured 60th rank of the State of Uttarakhand.

(3.) On 07.06.2013, the Department of Medical Education, Government of Uttarakhand, Dehradun, published an Information Bulletin for counselling for Uttarakhand State quota seats in MD/MS/MDS/PG Diploma courses in the medical/dental colleges of Uttarakhand State through NEET PG-2013/MDS-2013 for the academic session 2013-14. In this Information Bulletin, the Eligibility Criteria for admission to the postgraduate medical/denial courses was as follows: