ASSOCIATION OF PRIVATE MEDICAL AND DENTAL COLLEGES OF CHHATTISGARH Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH AND OTHERS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is directed against the judgment and order passed by the High Court of Chhattisgarh whereby the petition filed by the petitioner for extending time for carrying out admissions to post graduate and superspeciality courses in Medical and Dental Colleges in the State of Chhattisgarh was dismissed.

(2.) The main contention raised on behalf of the petitioner is that the State did not conduct the counselling within time; the State did not give proper publicity to the reduction of the cut-off marks for admission to Post Graduate Courses; the State did not send the list of eligible candidates as per the judgment in Dar-us-Slam Educational Trust and Ors. Vs. MCI and Ors. [WP (C) No. 267/2017]. Lastly, it is contended that a large number of seats are lying vacant which will result in wastage of seats.

(3.) In Ashish Ranjan & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Ors. [WP (C) No. 76/2015], this Court laid down a schedule to be followed for admission to medical colleges. This schedule, as approved by this Court, must be followed to ensure that medical education standards are not lowered as per the schedule laid down in Ashish Ranjan case (supra). The 1st round of counselling was to be completed from 9th to 10th May 2017. The 2nd round of counselling was to be completed from 11th to 20th May, 2017 and last date for admission is 31st May, 2017. All the States have followed the system of mop-up counselling which had to be done before 31st May, 2017. As far as the State of Chhattisgarh is concerned, the 1st round of counselling was conducted during the period 16th to 22nd May, 2017; the second round of counseling was conducted from 24th to 27th May, 2017 and the mop-up counselling on 30th May, 2017. Therefore, two rounds of counselling and one mop-up counselling were done. True, it may be that the schedule was not strictly adhered to but as far as the 2nd round of counselling was concerned that was completed by 27th May, 2017 and mop-up counselling was completed by 30th May, 2017 i.e. before 31st May, 2017. Therefore, there is no ground why the extension should be granted.