TRISHANU PAL; SHALINI BHAUMIK; MEGHALI DAS Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA REPRESENTED BY SECRETARY; SECRETARY, TO GOVERNMENT OF TRIPURA; DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL EDUCATION, GOVERNMENT OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these writ petitions being W.P.(C) No.1128 of 2016, [Sri Trishanu Pal, Vs. The State of Tripura and Ors.], W.P.(C) No.1129 of 2016, [Smt. Shalini Bhaumik Vs. The State of Tripura and Ors.] and W.P.(C) No.1139 of 2016, [Smt. Meghali Das Vs. The State of Tripura and Ors.] are clustered for disposal by a common judgment as the petitioners in these writ petitions have challenged the part of the Educational Notification under No.F.11(1)-ET/DME/2016 dated 24.09.2016 issued by the Director of Medical Education, Government of Tripura (Annexure-9 to the writ petitions). In the said Educational Notification, the petitioners have challenged the part which reads as under:

(2.) As the counselling for those reverted All India Quota (AIQ) seats for MBBS was scheduled to be held on 28.09.2016, on 27.09.2016 we passed the following order in W.P.(C) No.1128/2016:

(3.) Out of 100 seats for MBBS Course in Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC), 15 seats fell in AIQ to be filled up by the Government of India through the Director General for Health Services at New Delhi from the NEET-2016 merit list. There is no dispute that for those 15 seats, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) as constituted following the direction of the apex court vide order dated 07.06.2012 in I. A. No.35 of 2012 in the Writ Petition(Civil) No.443 of 1992 in the matter of Sharwan Kumar vs. Director General of Health Services and Anr. conducted online counselling on the basis of NEET UG Results, 2016 declared by the CBSE, New Delhi. Even after 2nd counselling they could not fill up more than 3 seats. Consequentially, the remaining 12 seats have been reverted to the State. The solitary question that has engulfed in the controversy is that whether those seats should be filled up from the candidates domiciled in Tripura following the NEET merit list or for filling up of those seats, the merit list as prepared by the State on the basis of the results of the Tripura Board of Joint Entrance Examination (TBJEE) should be followed. From the said Educational Notification it transpires that the respondents have decided to fill up those posts as per overall merit list of NEET-2016 ranking, but the candidates shall be resident of Tripura. The petitioners in these writ petitions have challenged that process asserting that those 12 seats have been released from AIQ and hence those shall be treated as the seats in the State quota. There is no mechanism under the control of the State to fill up the seats in AIQ. For that, MCC has been formed.