VIVEK BHATIA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) After passing the 10+2 examination the petitioner appeared in the premedical test held by the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in June, 1990 which is an entrance examination for admission to the MBBS, BDS/BAMS courses in the Government Medical Colleges in the State of Punjab. He secured 151 marks out of 300 and his merit being low he could not be admitted to the MBBS course. He joined the Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College at Belgaurn in the State of Karnataka in July, 1990 and passed his first professional examination in May, 1992. Thereafter, he applied for migration to the Principal, Government Medical College, Amritsar in the State of Punjab on compassionate grounds which were mentioned in the application. Since the petitioner had applied after the expiry of three months from the declaration of the first professional examination results in the State of Punjab, the principal forwarded his application to the Director, Research and Medical Education, Punjab, Chandigarh (for short, 'the Director) with a request that the same be referred to the Medical Council of India. The Director then wrote to the Principal, Government Medical College, Amritsar that necessary action be taken on the application of the petitioner for migration which had been recommended by the Chief Minister and the Health Minister of Punjab and a report be sent to his office. The Principal on receipt of this letter forwarded all the relevant papers to the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (for short, 'the University'), for necessary action. The Director also wrote a letter to the Secretary, Medical Council of India requesting him that a 'No Objection Certificate' in regard to the migration of the petitioner from Belgaum to the Punjab State Medical College at Amritsar against an additional seat on compassionate grounds be issued. The Medical Council of India as per its letter of September 30, 1992 addressed to the Principal, Government Medical College, Amritsar granted permission for the migration of the petitioner from Belgaum to the Government Medical College, Amritsar as a special case on compassionate grounds as stated by the petitioner in his application against the next year quota by reducing one seat. This permission was granted under R. V(e) as contained in the recommendations of the Council on Graduate Medical Education.

(2.) It will be, thus, seen that Medical Council of India allowed migration to the petitioner in September, 1992 by giving him one seat for the session commencing in the year 1992 by withdrawing one seat from the quota for the session 1993. I am informed that this type of adjustments have been made by the Medical Council on several occasions in the past keeping in view the circumstances of each case. After the Medical Council had allowed migration to the petitioner, there should have been no hitch for any one to permit him to join the second professional course in the Government Medical College, Amritsar. However, in the meantime a Division Bench of this Court in C.W.P. No. 8789 of 1992, Pooja Ahluwalia v. State of Punjab laid down certain guidelines to be followed by Medical/ Dental Colleges in Punjab for allowing migration to students. It was inter alia laid down that a joint test for deciding inter se merit of candidates seeking migration be held and the Committee was directed to finalise the steps to be taken for holding such tests at the earliest preferably before the next academic session i.e. the session commencing in the year 1993. The Director has now put his foot down and is not permitting the petitioner to join his classes in the Government Medical College, Amritsar on the ground that the seat which has been withdrawn for him belongs to the quota fixed for the session which was to commence in the year 1993 and, therefore, the petitioner should have taken the joint entrance test as directed in the guidelines enunciated by this Court in Pooja Ahluwalia' case (supra) and since he has not done so he cannot be allowed migration. It is this action of the Director that has been impugned in the present writ petition.

(3.) After hearing counsel for the parties at length, I find that the stand taken by the Director cannot be sustained. It is true that the Medical Council of India has treated an additional seat for the petitioner in the State Medical College at Amritsar and has withdrawn the same from the quota for the session which was to commence in the year 1993. The fact that the petitioner has been allowed migration for the session commencing in the year 1992 by creating an additional seat cannot be lost sight of. Merely because the seat had been withdrawn from the quota fixed for the year 1993 during which year the seats were to be filled up on the basis of an entrance test, it does not mean that the petitioner who had already been allowed migration for the session 1992 should be required to sit for the said test. There was, indeed, no such test prescribed by this Court or by any competent authority for the year 1992. Even otherwise, this Court in Pooja Ahluwalia' case (supra) had directed that 20% seats should be taken out of the purview of the joint test and the same be filled by the committee keeping in view the peculiar facts of a particular case but subject to the candidate' fulfilling other conditions. The case of the petitioner can well fall in this category of 20% seats and it is not the case of the respondents that he does not fulfil any other prescribed condition. As already observed earlier, the only ground on which he is not being allowed to join the classes is that he has not appeared in the joint test held for the purpose.