PRASADINI GURU Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this writ application has prayed for a direction to the opposite parties to admit her in first year Degree Course in Medicine in any of the Government Medical Colleges of Orissa and quashing the decision of the Admission Sub-Committee dated 24-7-2000 denying admission to the petitioner to the aforesaid course.

(2.) Case of the petitioner is that she has passed Indian School Certificate Examination in the year 1996 with a little more than 83% of marks and come out successful in Annual Higher Secondary Education, 1998 having secured 74% marks in aggregate. Having the requisite qualification she submitted an application to the Admission Sub-Committee, Joint Entrance Examination (E and M), 2000 for admission to first year Degree Course in Medicine and she was allotted Roll No. UME-56339. In the said Joint Entrance Examination she secured 15th position in the merit list for admission into medical stream. As per the provision of the prospectus the petitioner was required to obtain medical certificate in a prescribed pro forma from registered Government Medical Officer not below the rank of Sub-Divisional Medical Officer and the said certificate was required to be produced at the time of counselling. Accordingly, the petitioner obtained medical certificate from Dr. B.D. Sahu of Sambalpur and produced the same at the time of counselling which was held on 24-7-2000. However, the Admission Sub-Committee did not accept the medical report on the ground that the chest measurement as indicated in the medical certificate falls short of 1 cm than the prescribed measurement and only on the said ground denied admission of the petitioner in the Medicine stream.

(3.) Counter has been filed by the opposite parties 2 and 3 stating that the petitioner was rightly denied to participate in the counselling due to non-fulfilment of the minimum medical requirements provided under Clause 2.11 of the Information brochure. There is no mala fide or malice in the conduct of the Sub-Committee in refusing admission to the petitioner and the question of mala fide does not arise as refusal for admission was only on the ground that the petitioner did not fulfil the required medical standard. Reliance has been placed on various clauses of the Information Brochure and it is stated that since the petitioner failed to fulfil the requirement medical standard she was rightly denied admission.