NARAYAN SHARMA Vs. PANKAJ KR LEHKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals are directed against the judgment of the Gauhati High Court in Civil Rule Nos. 3493/97 and 3544/97, both being writ petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution. Civil Rule No. 3493/97 was filed by respondents 1-25 in Civil Appeal Nos. 5242-43/98. Civil Rule No. 3544/97 was filed by respondents 26-42 in the said appeals. The appellants in the said appeals were not parties in either of the writ petitions in the High Court. Respondents 43, 43A, 44 and 45 in the said appeals were respondents 1-4 in Civil Rule No. 3493/97 and respondents 43, 43A and 44 were the respondents in Civil Rule No. 3544/97. We find it convenient to refer to the parties as arrayed in Civil Appeal Nos. 5242-5243/98.

(2.) The respondents 1-25 challenged in their writ petition the validity of Rules 4, 5 and 8 (vii) of the Assam Medical Colleges (Regulation of the Admission to the Post-Graduate Courses) Rules, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Rules') on several grounds. Respondents 26-42 had in their writ petition prayed for a direction to allow them to appear in the entrance examination for the Session 1996-97 and that they should be admitted only on the basis of the performance and merit in the entrance examination. They prayed for issue of a writ quashing the corrigendum issued by the Director of Medical Education in the Educational Notice dated 11-7-1997 whereby the candidates referred to in sub-rules (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) of Rule 4 of the 'Rules' were exempted from appearing in the entrance examination.

(3.) The Government of Assam framed in February 1995 the Assam Medical Colleges (Regulation of Admission to Post-Graduate Courses) Rules, 1994 (hereinafter referred to as the '1994 Rules') under Art. 166 of the Constitution of India regulating admissions to the Post-graduate courses in the medical colleges of Assam. Rule 5 of the said Rules provided for eligibility for competitive examination. Rule 7 provided for scheme of selection and provisions were made for reservation. In 1997, the earlier Rules were superseded and the 'Rules' were framed. The 'Rules' came into force w.e.f. 1-7-1997. Rule 4 provides for reservation. Sub-rule (i) relates to All India quota seats being 25% of the total seats. Sub-rules (ii), (iii) and (iv) which are under challenge read as follows :