MINOR S JANANI Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India have been filed against the State of Tamil Nadu and the Secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education seeking a writ of declaration declaring Clause 8 (i), (ii) and (iv) of the Prospectus issued for MBBS/bds admissions for the Academic Year 2006 2007 as illegal and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India as it considers evaluation of two different qualifying examinations for determining the inter se merit and is thus inconsistent with the Regulations of the Medical Council of India regulating the admission to MBBS Medical Course. The petitioners have filed these petitions in the interest of the entire student community as PIL, who have taken up the Entrance Examination for admission to Professional Courses for the Academic year 2006 2007.

(2.) THE petitioners are students aspiring for admission to Under Graduate Medical Course. The petitioners had written their qualifying examination in 12th standard under the State Board and had also appeared for the Common Entrance Examination conducted by the respondents through Anna University. The petitioners state that Clause 8 (i), (ii) and (iv) of the Prospectus, which provides for inclusion of the marks obtained in the qualifying examination to the extent of 200 marks along with the Entrance Examination marks to the extent of 100 marks, is totally against the principles of merit and is clearly discriminatory offending the provisions of Article 14 of the Constitution. It is pointed out that according to the rulings of the Supreme Court, admissions to Medical Colleges should be based strictly on merit and that there should be proper criteria for admissions. Reference in this connection is made to the Regulations framed by the Medical Council of India with the previous sanction of the Central Government by virtue of powers conferred on it under Section 33 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. These Regulations are called "regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997" published in Part III Section 4 of the Gazette of India, dated 17. 05. 1997. Regulation 4 prescribes, in considerable detail, the eligibility criteria for students with various types of education leading to 10 +2 or its equivalent. Regulation 5 is important and reads as follows:-

(3.) THE petitioner state that Clause-8 of the Prospectus is totally contrary and inconsistent with the Regulations framed by the Medical Council of India, wherein Entrance Test is prescribed for a State like the State of Tamil Nadu having more than one Board conducting qualifying examination and particularly entrance test is contemplated only to achieve a uniform evaluation "as there may be variation of standards at qualifying examinations conducted by different agencies at different years". According to the petitioners, the impugned clause is ex facie discriminatory, as different set of students, who had taken qualifying examination conducted by different agencies and even as the students between the same agency, i. e. , the State Board, who have written their qualifying examination on two different syllabi, were treated together by adding their qualifying examination marks upto 200 marks along with the entrance examination marks, which is wholly inconsistent with the norms of admissions laid down by the Medical Council of India.