HASHID MON V Vs. COMMISSIONER OF ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question that arises in this writ petition is whether the fee concession given by the Government for the students admitted in self financing institutions in reservation merit quota from the allotment list maintained by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations should be based on the rank, or be based on the income of the candidates.

(2.) The students in both these writ petitions got admission for MBBS course based on the merit quota in reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (for short 'SEBC') candidates under different self financing medical colleges in the State. The Government entered into an agreement with the self financing institutions. In the agreement, it was stipulated that self financing colleges would collect concessional rates of tuition fee from the students admitted under 50% Government merit quota during the entire academic year from such students belonging to BPL / SEBC families as per the State Government norms. The maximum concession is given to 40% of the seats, out of which 14% (7 out of 100 seats) are to be given to students from BPL families and 26% (13 out of 100 seats) from SEBC students. The petitioners in these writ petitions as well as the respondent students have claimed fee concession in the category of SEBC.

(3.) The stand of the Government is that, such concession will have to be given according to the ranks obtained in the entrance examination. The petitioners' claim is that, their income is lower than the income of students, who were selected for concession. Therefore, they should have been preferred as against students who have higher income.