PRIYANKA DATTATRAY BAMANE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA THROUGH ITS DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL EDUCATION THROUGH THE ASSISTANT GOVERNMENT PLEADER APPELLATE SIDE HIGH COURT BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an unfortunate case where a less meritorious student than the petitioner, a student with 136 marks at the Common Entrance Test as against 137 marks obtained by the petitioner at the same test, secured admission to the first year MBBS course in respondent No.6 College. The petitioner moved this Court on 29 th September 2010 but by the time all the relevant facts could come on record and the parties completed their pleadings and made their oral submissions through their respective learned counsel, the cut off date of 30 th September 2010 had already gone past. This Court, therefore, noted in the order dated 5 th October 2010, that this unfortunate situation arose because students, who had already secured admissions to seats in Government Medical Colleges did not give up their entitlement to secure admissions to the private unaided medical colleges till the third round of counselling, with the result that the seats were later on treated as vacant and taken out of the pool of seats to be filled in by respondent No.3 herein -Association of Management of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges. One such seat reserved for NT-1 category then became available to the individual unaided private medical college in Pune-respondent No.6. This private college did not notify the vacancy on its website nor did it advertise the vacancy in any newspaper from Pune, but had notified the vacancy in a newspaper from Nagpur long before respondent No.3 Association had declared the vacancy. Respondent No.13 applied in response to that advertisement and secured admission to the first year MBBS course, leaving the petitioner at a disadvantage.

(2.) It is necessary to examine the relevant clauses in the scheme prepared for admissions to private unaided medical colleges, which have been invoked by the Association and respondent No.6- College.

(3.) From the affidavit in reply filed on behalf of the Director of Medical Education & Research (respondent No.2), Association of Management of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges, Maharashtra (respondent No.3) and the Competent Authority of the said Association (respondent No.4) as well as the Dean, Ahmednagar Medical College (respondent No.6) it transpires that the Selection Process is as under :- Whilst there is a Centralised Admission Process being undertaken by the Director of Medical Education for admissions to seats in the first year MBBS course in the Government Medical Colleges and in the First Year BDS Course in Government Dental Colleges in the State, there is another Centralised Admission Process for admissions to the first year MBBS course in the private medical colleges and to the 1 st year BDS course in private dental colleges in the State which is being undertaken by respondent No.3 Association. The Final Revised Scheme for Centralised Admission Process for unaided private medical and dental colleges, in so far as it is relevant for the purposes of this petition, reads as follows.