NINA PUNJABHAI VADHEL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two Special Civil Applications were heard analogously as common questions that arise for determination are i) whether Rules 5(A)(ii) and 5(2) of the Gujarat Professional Medical Educational Courses (Regulation of Admission and Payment of Fees) (Amendment) Rules, 2014, ["the Medical Admission Rules", hereafter] are illegal and ultra vires the Constitution of India insofar as it makes a student of Gujarat origin and domicile of Gujarat ineligible from getting admission in the professional courses such as M.B.B.S/B.D.S. etc., and (ii) whether a direction should be given to the State of Gujarat to consider the question of effecting change in the eligibility criteria provided in clause 5(2) of the Medical Admission Rules in conformity with the change in the eligibility criteria effected in Rule 5(2) of the Engineering and Technology (Regulation of Admission and Payment of Fees) Rules, 2013 ["the Engineering Admission Rules, hereafter] with respect to children of Defense and Armed Forces Personnel of Gujarat origin, declaring that different eligibility criteria for admission into Medical, Dental and Para Medical courses after Standard XII is discriminatory, arbitrary, and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, and, therefore, illegal and unconstitutional.

(2.) The sum and substance of the grievance of the petitioners in these writ-applications are that although they belong to the State of Gujarat, in view of the fact that their respective fathers are in the defence service and transferable in their job throughout India, and by reason of such transfer, they have been compelled to study in Class XI and XII in schools situated outside the State of Gujarat, they cannot be held ineligible for admission in Medical and Para Medical courses in the State of Gujarat, particularly when a person situated in the same position is eligible for admission in the Engineering courses in the State of Gujarat.

(3.) So far as the question of striking down the provisions contained in the rules for admission to M.B.B.S / B.D.S. / B.P.T. / B.A.M.S / B.H.M.S / B. Sc. Nursing / B.P.O. / B.O. / B.O.T. / B. Nat. / B.A.S.L.P. in the institutions in the State of Gujarat is concerned, in the past, this very Division Bench has specifically held that the aforesaid provisions of Rule 5 (2) is not ultra vires any of the provisions of the Constitution of India, by giving a detailed judgment in the case of VISHAKHA D/O MAHENDRA PATEL v. STATE OF GUJARAT, and in the case of SHEETAL YESHWANTKUMAR PARMAR v. STATE OF GUJARAT AND ANR in SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 12163 OF 2013.