ANURAG TIWARI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Thirty six out of the fifty candidates who had appeared at the MD/MS Merit Screening Test-2010 for Institutional candidates conducted by the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (hereinafter referred to as the 'Institute') have sought the quashing of the order dated 6th April, 2010 passed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University as also the consequential notification dated 13th April, 2010 issued by the Institute for cancelling the Merit Screening Test held on 10th February, 2010 and for holding of a fresh 'Merit Screening Test' for Institutional candidates on 26th May, 2010. The petitioners have also sought a direction upon the respondents to hold the counselling of the petitioners for admission to the MD/MS course as per the merit list declared on 19th February, 2010 on the basis of the Merit Screening Test held on 10th February, 2010. The Institute awards degree of MD/MS in several disciplines/subjects and admission to these courses is made through an All India Test but a separate test called 'Merit Screening Test' is conducted by the Institute for Institutional/Internal Candidates who have passed the Final Professional Examination from the Institute.

(2.) There were 134 seats available for the MD/MS Course in the Institute for the Academic Year 2010, and the breakup of the seats is as follows:--

(3.) The Merit Screening Test for admission against the 43 Institutional seats was held by the Institute on 10th February, 2010 and the All India Entrance Test for the 24 All India Entrance Test Quota seats was held on 21st February, 2010. For the purpose of conducting the Merit Screening Test for the Institutional/Internal candidates, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, by the order dated 9th November, 2009, appointed Professor L.D. Mishra, Department of Anesthesiology, as the Professor In-Charge of the MD/MS Entrance Examination-2010, while Professor S.K. Gupta, Department of General Surgery, was appointed as Co-Incharge of the MD/MS Entrance Examination-2010. A Co-ordination Committee was also constituted for conducting the aforesaid MD/MS Entrance Examination-2010 and in its meeting held on 12th November, 2009, the Co-ordination Committee at Item No. 9 resolved that the evaluation of OMR Sheets, preparation of result sheets and its pasting on the University Website will be done with the help of the Computer Centre of the University. The schedule of the MD/MS Test for Institutional candidates was also discussed and it was resolved that as per the procedure practiced last year, the date of Screening Test will be 14th February, 2010 and the date of result on website will be 3rd week of March, 2010. Along with the application form provided to the candidates, Information Leaflet about the Merit Screening Test-2010 for MD/MS admission to Institutional candidates was also provided to the candidates and the relevant information contained in the leaflet is as follows:--