ATINDRA DAS Vs. STATE OF ASSAM AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. S.S. Dey, learned Counsel for the petitioner and Mr. P.K. Mushahary, learned Senior Government Advocate, Assam, appearing for the official respondents.

(2.) In the joint entrance examination for admission to the Medical Colleges of the State of Assam for the session 2005-2006 that was held in the month of May, 2005 the petitioner was a candidate. The petitioner belongs to the Scheduled Caste category and on the basis of the result of the entrance examination the petitioner who secured 601 rank in order of merit was placed at Serial No. 20 of the list of successful candidates in the scheduled caste category. There were 21 seats earmarked for scheduled caste candidates. The petitioner having come within the eligible zone for admission has instituted the present proceeding challenging the refusal of the respondents to give admission to the petitioner.

(3.) The claim made in the writ petition has been resisted by the official respondents by filing an affidavit. In the affidavit filed the official respondents have stated that against the total number of 174 seats earmarked for general category candidates, the names of as many as 250 candidates in order of merit was drawn up. The excess number of candidates in the general category pool was in accordance with the prevailing practice of having more candidates in the pool than seats available so as to accommodate such excess candidates in the event the candidates placed higher in merit are not found eligible for admission. The respondents, in the affidavit filed, have further stated that in the event any candidate in the general category pool, who otherwise belongs to a reserved category, is not accommodated against the general category seats, such a candidate is granted admission against the seats earmarked for the particular reserved category to which he/she belongs. In such an eventuality the candidates included in the particular reserved category gets pushed down. In the present case 5 candidates belonging to the scheduled caste category who were included in the general category pool could not secure admission against the seats earmarked for general category candidates. As the aforesaid candidates were scheduled caste candidates and had submitted their forms as scheduled caste candidates they were given admission against the seats earmarked for the scheduled caste category on the basis of their inter se merit and after accommodating the aforesaid 5 candidates in the manner indicated above the number of seats available for being filled by scheduled caste candidates came down to 16. The petitioner being at Serial No. 20 of the list of candidates belonging to the schedule caste, therefore, could not be admitted as persons placed higher in order of merit and belonging to the scheduled caste were given admission.