VIJAY LHUMY Vs. KASTURBA MEDICAL COLLEGE MANIPAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) COMMON questions of law arise in these two writ petitions which have been heard together and shall stand disposed of by this common order.

(2.) THE petitioners are Malaysian Nationals. They were admitted to the first year of M. B. B. S. Course during the academic year 1990-91. While they had yet to complete their course, the marks card of the qualifying examination produced by them at the time of their admission were sent for verification to the Pre-University Education Board at Bangalore. The verification revealed that the petitioners had failed in the qualifying examination but had produced fabricated marks cards with a view to secure admission in the professional course. As many as 12 other candidates were also found to have similarly produced fabricated certificates and secured admission. A direction was accordingly issued by the Director of pre-University Department to the T. M. A. Pai Foundation, manipal to cancel the admission of all the 14 students. The admissions were accordingly cancelled and communicated to the candidates concerned. Aggrieved, the petitioners and others approached this Court in Writ Petition No. 5145 of 1994 and connected matters which were disposed of by a common order dated 14th February, 1996 with the direction that the authorities, should pass fresh orders within a period of 2 months after hearing the petitioners. An enquiry is thereafter said to have been conducted by the Director of Pre-University Education on 22nd of April, 1996 and 10th of May, 1996 in which only 13 candidates attended the 14th namely Lau Haw Ming having remained absent. The Director eventually passed an order on 29-6-1996 holding that all the 14 candidates including the petitioners herein had produced fabricated pass certificates of II puc and that the admissions secured by them based on the said certificates were illegal and hence liable to be cancelled. The admissions were thus cancelled for the 2nd time with a further direction that the candidates be prosecuted before the competent Court. Aggrieved the petitioners have come up with the present writ petitions assailing the order passed by the director inter alia on the ground that the same suffered from non-application of mind and was wholly arbitrary. No reasons or other justification has according to the petitioners been advanced while cancelling the admission of the students thereby rendering the impugned order unsustainable.

(3.) IN the statement of objections filed on behalf of the respondents it is urged that the finding recorded by the Director is based on the materials produced in the course of the enquiry and the thorough verification of the result sheets of the examination taken by the candidates, which had revealed that the marks cards produced by them were fabricated. Reliance has been placed upon attendant circumstances in support of the conclusion that the marks cards in question were actually fabricated documents.