STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH Vs. ARPANA SHUKLA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THOUGH we were seized of two appeals directed against an interim stay order passed by writ Court dated 8-9-1998, parties prayed for disposal of the writ petitions also to put an end to the controversy for good. That is how we propose to dispose of the whole matter.

(2.) Writ petitioners were candidates for admission to M.S./M.D. in general category in the State Medical Colleges for the session 1998. After they failed to qualify in their category they filed W.P. Nos. 460 and 461 of 1998 seeking quashment of circular dated 17-2-98 issued by the Government fixing minimum qualifying marks of 20% for Scheduled Caste candidates, 15% for Scheduled Tribe candidates and 40% for other Backward Class (OBC) candidates on the ground that it was not competent to lower the minimum qualifying standard below 40% in the face of the guidelines fixed by the Medical Council of India under S. 20 of the Medical Council Act and in terms of judgment of the Supreme Court in Dr. Sadhadevi's case (1997) 3 SCC 90 : (AIR 1997 SC 1120) and a Division Bench judgment of this Court in Vibhuti Prassana Sinha's case (W.P. No. 1084/97) decided on 6-5-97. In other words the case set up was that in the aforesaid judgments as also in the guidelines prescribed by Medical Council of India, minimum qualifying marks of 40% had to be obtained by a reserved category candidate in post-graduate entrance examination and, therefore, Government was not competent to relax or lower this standard by bringing it down 40% and consequently circular dated 17-2-98 issued by it was ultra vires, illegal and arbitrary. A direction was consequently sought for quashment of this circular and for reversion of the unfilled reserved category seats to the general category to enable the writ petitioners to qualify for admission in the respective post-graduate courses.

(3.) The two writ petitions were opposed by the State on the plea that these were misconceived and proceeded on a wrong premise. It was explained that in all 290 seats were to be filled up. Out of these 72 seats were earmarked for All India Quota, 33 for SC candidates, 46 for ST candidates and 30 for OBC candidates in accordance with the percentage of the reservation provided under the Rules. While all 109 general category seats were filled up on merit from amongst candidates who had obtained above 50% marks in the entrance examination, only - seats could be filled from SC/ST/OBC candidates who had secured above 40% marks. Therefore, Government in its wisdom and in tune with its policy of reservation issued circular dated 17-2-98 fixing the minimum qualifying marks for the candidates of these reserved categories to accommodate more candidates from them. Accordingly 20% minimum qualifying marks were fixed for SC candidates, 15% for ST candidates and 40% for OBC candidates. But on second counselling after applying this standard, 69 seats still remained unfilled and the Govt. proposed to lower the minimum qualifying marks again to prevent the unfilled seats from going waste. It was accordingly proposed to further lower the percentage of minimum qualifying marks to 15% for SC candidates, 8% for ST candidates and 20% for OBC candidates to so that all 69 unfilled seats could be utilised for candidates from these reserved categories.