SUYOG SUDHAKAR CHOPADE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By order dated 17-9-2007 passed in Special Leave Petition preferred by N. K. P. Salve Institute of Medical sciences against the order passed by this Court in Writ Petition No. 1529/03 the Apex Court requested learned Chief Justice of Bombay High court to see that Writ Petition No. 1529/03 and analogous writ petitions are disposed of within a period of 2 months from the date of receipt of the order and in case it was not possible for the Nagpur Bench to dispose of these writ petitions within the stipulated time schedule the learned Chief Justice shall transfer all these petitions to the main seat and see that within the same time schedule the petitions are disposed of. The order of the Apex Court was received by the Registry of this office on 8-10-2007. In view of the said order of the Apex Court Writ petition No. 1529/03 along with the above six analogous writ petitions were taken up for hearing and are being disposed of by this common Judgment.

(2.) Vidya Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, nagpur runs two Colleges, Medical and Dental viz. N. K. P. Salve Institute of Medical Science and Research and Dental College and Research centre at Nagpur. Writ Petition No. 4429/04 has been preferred by N. K. P. Salve Institute of Medical sciences and Research Vidya Shikshan prasarak, Mandal (for the sake of convenience hereinafter referred to as "the Management") and other six petitions have been preferred by the students who had taken admission for m. B. B. S. and B. D. S. Courses during the year 2002-2003. The petitioners in these six petitions will be referred to as "the Students" for the sake of convenience.

(3.) Briefly, the facts relevant for the disposal of the present petitions are as under: the Hon'ble Apex Court in Writ Petition no. 649/97 had directed the State Governments to hold common entrance test for admission to health Sciences Courses. Accordingly, the state of Maharashtra has been conducting common entrance test (CET) from the year 1999 onwards for admission to the said courses. For the purpose of conducting CET for admissions to the said courses for the year 2002-03 the State of Maharashtra issued Notification dated 1-2-2002. By the said Notification, the director of Medical Education Research (for short "the DMER") who was appointed as the competent authority by Resolution dated 21st december, 2001 was directed to carry out admissions of Health Science Courses as per the Admission Regulations. The Admission regulations for the academic year 2002-03 were published in a Brochure styled as MH-CET 2002. The said brochure contains the entire programme relating to admission process. It provides informations as regards availability of seats, colleges and the manner in which the seats were to be distributed. The details of selection process have been laid down in Regulation no. 9.