ADITI SUSAN JOHN Vs. GOVERNMENT OF PUDUCHERRY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in W.P.No.28266 of 2018 have challenged the press release dated 16.10.2018 in reference No.CENTAC/UG-Admin/2018-2019 issued by the second respondent, to quash the same in so far as it relates to the special counselling to be conducted on 15.10.18 to fill up the 33 management quota seats by calling upon all the 330 candidates in the list sponsored by the second respondent, which comprised of students who did not report for counselling on 31.08.2018, which is the last date for admission of students all over the country, as per the Supreme Court Order in Writ Petition Civil No.267 of 2017 dated 09.05.2017 with a consequential direction to the second respondent to recall the press release in so far as it has resulted in the discontinuance of the seven petitioners from the MBBS Course and to issue appropriate orders to the fourth respondent to permit the petitioners to continue their first year MBBS Course in the fourth respondent college.

(2.) Mr.N.L.Rajah, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners in W.P.Nos.28266 and 30339 of 2018 argued that when all the eight petitioners were admitted to the First Year MBBS course in the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, the fourth respondent herein, the Coordinator of the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC), Puducherry, the second respondent herein (hereinafter referred to as "the CENTAC"?) directed the petitioners to discontinue their course on the ground that they were wrongly admitted. Continuing his arguments, Mr.N.L.Rajah submitted that as per the MBBS admission process, the CENTAC will conduct two rounds of common counselling to fill up the seats under both the Government and Management Quota seats. At each stage of the counselling, candidates are to register their names. In spite of the two rounds of counselling, if the seats are not filled up, to fill up the left out seats, the CENTAC will conduct a mop-up counselling. Only after these rounds of counselling, if few more seats are found vacant, the respective colleges are permitted to conduct stray mop-up counselling, based on the 1:10 list of candidates furnished by the CENTAC. At each stage of counselling, the candidates are called up to register their acceptance on their CENTAC registration page online for the next stage of counselling. Even the Supreme Court has also fixed 31.08.2018 as the last date for admission to the MBBS course across India, which is an inflexible deadline. Hence, the same have to be respected and adhered to by all the colleges and other authorities.

(3.) While so, when the CENTAC conducted the mop-up counselling on 22.8.2018 to fill up the left out MBBS seats in the colleges affiliated to Pondicherry University, the said mop-up list contained the names of more than 1000 candidates. The second respondent also sent SMS to about 1100 students from the mop-up list on 25.8.2018 asking them to update their choice for the 1:10 in their login until 26 August 5.00 PM. Pursuant to the said SMS and email messages received by the petitioners herein, the eligible candidates including the petitioners registered their names with the second respondent for the stray mop-up counselling. At this juncture, it is pertinent to mention the subsequent development, it is pleaded, that the Madras High Court by order dated 28.8.2018 in W.P.No.18058 of 2018 filed by the fourth respondent college, quashing the order dated 1.5.2018 issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare restricting the students, allowed the writ petition directing the Ministry to grant renewal of permission to the fourth respondent for admitting the fifth batch of MBBS students against the increased intake from 100 to 150 students for the academic year 2018-19 and the learned Judge also in the said order directed that out of 50 seats, 17 shall be the Government quota seats and 33 shall be the Management quota seats with a further direction to the CENTAC to admit the 50 students under the Government and management quotas. Immediately thereafter, the fourth respondent wrote to the CENTAC by letter dated 29.8.2018 requesting to comply with the order of the High Court and allot the 50 students for admission. As there was no response to the said letter, the fourth respondent also sent another letter dated 30.8.2018 requesting the CENTAC to furnish the 1:10 students for the 33 management quota seats who have applied to the CENTAC so as to enable the fourth respondent college to admit the students, failing which the fourth respondent informed that they would have no option except to admit the students on 31.8.2018 from the merit list of the CENTAC and the mop-up counselling list available on its website since 22.8.2018.