BHUSHAN LAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The claim of the petitioners in the present writ petition under Arts. 226 / 227 of the Constitution of India is that even though they are working on ad hoc basis as medical officers under the Punjab Government they are as good as regular Punjab Civil Medical Service (For short, PGMS) Class II doctors for all intents and purposes and are, therefore, entitled to be considered for admission to the Post Graduate Degree / Diploma Courses conducted by the Punjab Government in medical colleges against the 60% quota reserved for PG MS Class II doctors. In wake of their aforesaid claim, the prayer is to quash orders Annexures P2 and P3 in so far as the same confer eligibility only to doctors who are in regular employment of the Government. Before, however, merits of the case as projected by Mr. Bedi, learned counsel for the petitioners, are commented upon, it will be useful to give bare minimum facts that have driven the petitioners to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court.

(2.) All the petitioners passed their MBBS examination from the State medical colleges in Punjab from 1983 to 1985 and thereafter all of them completed one-year Internship, as also their House-jobs, as per details given in para 3 of the writ petition. Bhushan Lal, petitioner, was selected as medical officer and appointed as such by the Punjab Government on 11/09/1987 and till date he is working on the said post. Lalit Kumar, petitioner, came to occupy the post of medical officer on 18/12/1987, and he too is continuing on the post till date. Sanjay Kapoor, petitioner, was appointed to the post of medical officer on 17/03/1987, and he too is holding the said post to date. Anil Kumar, petitioner, who was appointed as medical officer on 28/09/1987, is also continuing as such on the post till date. The details of places of posting of the petitioners, as have been given in para 4 of the petition, would go to show that all the petitioners since the very first date of their appointment are serving in the rural areas and each one of them has completed his service in the rural area for a period of three years, or more which is uninterrupted and continuous. The respondent-Government issued the notification on November, 1990, by which it ordered that selection of students for admission to the three years post-Graduate degree course for the session 1990-91 in Government Medical College Patiala and Amritsar shall be made by holding a Post Graduate Entrance Test by taking into account academic achievements of the candidates. The said test was to be conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar and Panjabi University Patiala, alternatively, on behalf of the Punjab Government. In terms of aforesaid notification of the Government, the Post-Graduate Entrance Test was conducted on 27/02/1991, by Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar. However, prior to the holding of the examination as has been mentioned above, the Punjab Government Health Department issued a corrigendum on 29/01/1991. vide which some amendments were made in the instructions / notification dated 23/11/1990. The eligibility for appearing in the examination as spelt out from the notification (Annexure Pl) dated 23/11/1990, would go to show that all in service PCMS Class II doctors and fresh graduates were eligible to take the said test irrespective of their extra attempts in under-Graduate career. Further, reservation to post-Graduate courses for fresh graduate candidates was to the extent of 40% and for in service candidates to the extent of 60%. Out of the 60% quota reserved for in service candidates, Registrars / Demonstrators were to be adjusted first and the rest were to be given to the PCMS doctors, vide corrigendum (Annexure P3), reference of which has been given above the Government made some modifications in the notification dated 23rd Nov. 1990 (Annexure P1). The relevant part of the corrigendum with regard to eligibility runs as under :-

(3.) The Punjab Government after having laid down quota for the in-service candidates to the extent of 60% and open merit quota to the extent of 40%, invited applications for admission to the three years post-graduate courses (academic session 1991-92) in the Government Medical Colleges Amritsar, Patiala, and admittedly, the petitioners applied for the same within time. In the examination conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, the petitioners appeared and their merit, both as in service candidates and as general category candidates, is depicted below : S. No. Name of the Petitioner Marks obtained Merit in service Merit General 1. Dr. Bhushan Lal 46.8 3 32 2. Dr. Lalit Kumar 45.9 4 37 3. Dr. Sanjay Kapoor 41.6 11 103 4. Dr. Anil Kumar 39.1 19 146 @@@ The interview, after the examination was over and the merit of various candidates was known, was scheduled to be held on 2/05/1991, and when the petitioners learnt that they are not being considered under the 60% quota meant for in service candidates and instead are being considered against the quota of 40% fixed for the general category, they filed the present writ petition and prayed that the interviews scheduled for 2/05/1991, be stayed.