VIVEK ISHWAR HEBBAR Vs. DEAN GOA MEDICAL COLLEGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, a candidate for admission to the M.B.B.S. course of the Goa Medical College for the session 1985-86, seeks in this petition a writ of mandamus or in the nature of mandamus commanding the first three respondents to forthwith admit him to the said course and further a declaration that the conditions that the candidate should have passed the XIIth standard (HSSCE/equivalent) from schools/colleges in the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, and that the exemption from passing the XIIth standard or its equivalent from such school/college is available only to the children of the officers of the Central Government posted under the Government of Goa, Daman and Diu, if the transfer of the concerned officer takes place during the mid-academic year when the children were studying in schools/colleges outside the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, are arbitrary and unconstitutional.

(2.) The relevant facts may be stated. The petitioner is the son of a Central Government servant, namely, an Assistant Engineer, Microwave. His father was transferred on 13-7-1984 from Karad to Panaji and this transfer took place during the mid-academic year when the petitioner was studying in the XIIth standard in a college outside the Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu. The petitioner answered his Higher Secondary School Certificate Examination conducted by the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Pune Divisional Board, in March, 1985, having appeared for the said examination from the Science College, Karad, (District) Satara. According to the petitioner, the said examination is deemed by the University of Bombay, in its scope and standard, to be equivalent to the Higher Secondary School Certificate Examination and the subjects studied by the petitioner include physics, chemistry and biology, including a practical test in each of these subjects, and also English. The medium of instruction of the petitioner at the level of the said examination has been English. The petitioner applied for admission to the M.B.B.S. course of the Goa Medical College (session 1985-1986) in the general category within the prescribed time, attaching to the said application some documents. However, along with his application, he filed also a letter dated 7-6-1985, wherein he has stated that he has appeared for the XIIth Science examination in March 1985 from the H.S.S.C. Board, Pune at Karad centre and the result of the said examination has not been yet declared at the time of the filing of the application and was going to be declared on 12th June, 1985. He, therefore, submitted that he was not able to produce, as required in the Prospectus, the passing Higher Secondary School Certificate as well as the mark list. The last date prescribed in the Prospectus of the Goa Medical College for filing the application was 10th June, 1985, and the petitioner has produced the passing certificate of the H.S.S.C.E. only somewhere on 17th June, 1985. On 30th June, 1985, the first respondent, Dean of the Goa Medical College, published on the notice board a list of candidates selected for admission to the M.B.B.S. course of the Goa Medical College (session 1985-1986) under the category general. The name of the petitioner was not included in the said list and as such, it is clear that he has been refused admission to the said course.

(3.) The petitioner states that the list contains 39 candidates beginning with one Kum. Naique Varsha B. and ending with Kum. Shenvi Malaya Bindev. The said Kum. Naique Varsha B. had obtained 91.66 per cent marks whereas Kum. Shenvi Malaya Bindav obtained 79.33 per cent marks. The petitioner has obtained 90 per cent marks in Science subjects, namely, in physics, chemistry and biology. Therefore, he made inquiries as to why he had not been selected and he was informed by the first respondent that admission to the M.B.B.S. course of the Goa Medical College, Panaji (session 1985-86) has been refused to the petitioner because, although the condition of five years residence in the Union Territory did not apply to the petitioner since he is the son of a Central Government servant who has been transferred to the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, the condition of having passed the XIIth standard or its equivalent from any school/college in the Union Territory applies to him, in spite of the fact that the petitioner's father has been transferred to this Union Territory during the mid-academic year when the petitioner was studying in the XIIth standard in a college outside this territory. This was so because the petitioner's father, it was represented, is not posted under the Government of Goa, Daman and Diu. It is further the case of the petitioner that by letters dated 26th June, 1985 and 1st July, 1985, he pointed out to the Lt. Governor of Goa, Daman and Diu, the injustice of the rule refusing admissions to the M.B.B.S. course at the Goa Medical College, Panaji, to sons of the Central Government servants posted in the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, but not under the government of Goa, Daman and Diu while granting them to sons of the Central Government servants posted under the Government of Goa, Daman and Diu. According to the petitioner, the said rule contained in sub-clause (6) of Cl.1 of Part II of the Goa Medical College Prospectus is arbitrary, unconstitutional ultra vires, null and void and hence, the present writ petition seeking a declaration to that effect and a direction to respondents 1 to 3 to admit him forthwith to the M.B.B.S. course (session 1985-86).