RAMAN ARORA Vs. UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . Dr.Raman Arora and Deepti Lal, the petitioners in these two writ petitions, medical graduates who have done their MBBS from Goa and Maharashtra respectively in 15% All India quota, are seeking admission to Post Graduate Diploma Course (M.S./M.D) of University of Delhi under 75% quota for Delhi. Their applications have been rejected by the respondents on the ground that they do not fulfil requisite eligibility criteria as laid down in Clause III(A)(2)(i) of the prospectus issued for admission to the aforesaid course. The respondents contend that the petitioners are not eligible as they had not passed their 10th, 11th and 12th Class examinations from the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Both the petitioners plead that they are bonafide residents of Delhi but had to go out of Delhi in 15% All India quota as they could not yet admission in Medical Course in Delhi. They plead that they had completed their 10+2 course from Delhi schools, but could not do their 10th class from Delhi for certain compelling circumstances. It is averred that till last year the condition regarding 10th Class was not in the rules which has been added during the current year only. The petitioners submit that the rejection of their candidature is illegal, arbitrary and unjust as they are permanent and bonafide residents of Delhi having their roots in Delhi. It is submitted that till last year they were eligible to seek admission in the course in question but due to change of the aforesaid eligibility criteria they have suddenly become ineligible. The petitioners rely upon the judgement of the Apex Court in Meenakshi Malik Vs. Union of India 1989(3) SCC 112 to pray that an exception be made in their cases. They also challenge the amended rule III(A)(2)(1) of prospectus.

(2.) . On facts the petitioner Raman Arora pleads that his father is an Officer in Canara Bank and is posted on a transferable job. In 1979 his father was transferred to Delhi and the petitioner was put in a nursery school. Upto 1984 the petitioner studied in a school in Delhi and thereafter from 1984 to 1986 when his father was posted to Calcutta he got his education at Calcutta and studied upto Class IV. In 1986 his father was again transferred back to Delhi and as such the petitioner also came to Delhi and joined a school where he studied upto 7th standard. His father was again transferred to Sirsa in the year 1989. Accordingly the petitioner had to leave Delhi and join a school at Sirsa where he studied upto Xth Class till 1992. The petitioner's father was transferred back to Delhi in 1992 when the petitioner joined DAV Model Sr. Secondary School, Delhi and studied there for Class XIth and XIIth. In 1994 after clearing his 12th Class the petitioner joined Hans Raj College, Delhi as a student of BSc(General). In 1995 he was allotted a seat at Goa under All India Quota. In December 2000 he completed his MBBS. In 2001 he cleared the Entrance Test for this very Post Graduate Course but did not join. However, in January, 2002 when he applied for Entrance Test his application was rejected on the basis of the amended rule that he had not done 10th class from Delhi. He also filed his own affidavit and the affidavit of the father and averred that almost all their close relatives were residents of Delhi. It was averred that petitioners grand mother, hiss father's three real brothers, his fathers real sister were all having their own properties in Delhi and were residing in Delhi. It was also submitted that the petitioners father had become a member of Canara Cooperative Group Housing Society Limited in the year 1982 which allotted him a flat at Rohini in the multi storey Group Housing in the year 1989. In the service record of his father his permanent address was shown as that of Delhi only.

(3.) . The petitioner Deepti Lal pleaded that she is a bonafide resident of Delhi and was born at Delhi itself. Her father had also born at Delhi. The petitioner's father who was born and brought up at Krishna Bazar Cloth Market, Fateh Puri, Delhi shifted to Sarasvati Vihar, New Delhi, in the year 1992. As such the petitioner and her family has been all along residing at Delhi. The mother of the petitioner, who was working in the Education Department of Government of Delhi, was posted to a School at Pandav Nagar in the year 1994 and as such the petitioner was admitted to Summer-Ville School, Noida from where she passed her 10th Class examination. Pandav Nagar falls in Delhi but the school which was just across the road, was falling in U.P. However, she completed her Class XIth and XIIth from Ramjas School, R.K.Puram, New Delhi. After clearing her 12th Class examination the petitioner appeared in the entrance test conducted by the University of Delhi in the year 1996. She qualified the test but finding the course offered by CBSE a better course she took admission in SRTR Medical College, Distt. Beed, Maharashtra. Her ranking in the DPMT examination was 359. The petitioner averred that she was born and brought up at Delhi and had done her 10th Class from Noida merely on account of the posting of her mother at Pandav Nagar, Delhi which was very near to her school in Noida and as such she was always a bonafide resident of Delhi. She also assailed the rejection of her admission on the basis of the changed rule and pleaded that her parents as well as she were bonafide residents of Delhi and as such she could not be denied admission under 75% quota.