PALLAVI MAHAJAN Vs. PANJAB UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Through this writ petition, prayer has been made for issuance of a writ of certiorari quashing the notice issued by the Head of the Department, Public Administration, Panjab University-respondent No. 2, directing the petitioner and similarly situated candidates, who had passed the Ph.D. Entrance Test to again appear for Objective Type Test to be conducted on 13.12.2010 without any justification and in violation of the prospectus issued by Panjab University-respondent No. 1. Petitioner after passing her MA in Public Administration appeared for an entrance test for admission to M.Phil. Course, which she cleared and got third rank. After clearing the interview, she was admitted to the course in the month of August, 2010. Prospectus was issued by respondent No. 1-Panjab University for admission to Ph.D. Programme. As per the procedure for admission to Ph.D. Programme, as mentioned at page 5 of the said prospectus, candidates were to be admitted either directly or through M.Phil. Programme. For admission to the course, candidates have to qualify Ph.D. entrance test conducted by the Panjab University. It further provided that the written test shall be followed by a mandatory interview in the form of interaction to be organized by the concerned school/department/institute as the case may be. Page 6 of the prospectus deals with exemption from entrance test for enrollment to Ph.D., clause (iii) provides that candidates who have joined M.Phil, on the basis of University entrance test for admission to Ph.D./M.Phil. were exempted from taking the entrance test for enrollment to Ph.D. It is on this basis that the counsel for the petitioner contends that since the petitioner falls under the exempted category for entrance test for enrollment to Ph.D., impugned notice issued by respondent No. 2 directing the petitioner and similarly situated candidates to pass Objective Type Test to be conducted on 13.12.2010, cannot sustain as the petitioner has been exempted from taking the lest for admission to Ph.D.

(2.) Upon notice, reply has been filed by the respondents wherein it has been stated that for the purpose of enrollment/admission to Ph.D., there are two categories of candidates who are eligible; first are those who have cleared the Panjab University test as held for Ph.D. Entrance Test 2010 and the second is the category of exemptees. Total number of seats are only six and the eligible candidates are twenty two. Since eligible candidates from category No. 2 i.e. exemptees have not appeared in the test, it is not possible to assess the inter-se merit of the eligible candidates and this test is only with an intention to test the merit of all eligible candidates for putting them at par and then on the basis of merit secured in the test, the first six candidates be admitted/enrolled for the Ph.D. Course in the Department of Public Administration.

(3.) Counsel for the parties have made their submissions in the light of the pleadings which have been referred to above.