IMANJEET SINGH ARORA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge in the present writ petition is to the order dated 03.01.2014 (wrongly typed as 03.04.2014) (Annexure P11) whereby the petitioner's request for denying him admission against the 7th seat in the MBBS Course, as per his merit, for the current academic session, i.e., 2013-14, in the category code No.20, i.e., wards of terrorist/riot affected persons, has been rejected in view of the fact that the cut-off date for admission in MBBS Course was 30th September, as per the judgment of the Apex Court in Priya Gupta Vs. State of Chhatisgarh, 2012 7 SCC 433.

(2.) The pleaded case of the petitioner is that the respondent-State issued notification dated 05.06.2013, for the purpose of admission from amongst eligible candidates, for the course of MBBS/BDS, in the Government as well as private Medical/Dental Colleges, in the State of Punjab, for the academic session 2013-14. As per the reservation policy, there was 2% reservation for category- wards of terrorist/riots affected persons, which was further sub-categorised as under, bearing category code 19 and 20 respectively:

(3.) In pursuance of the said notification, respondent No.2-University issued prospectus for the academic session 2013-14 and the petitioner applied for admission in the MBBS/BDS Course, as per the prospectus in Sub Category 9- (b), having category code as 20, as he belongs to a riot affected family. The merit list for category 20 was prepared wherein the petitioner was placed at Sr.No.10. As per the parameter for reservation, the respondents were supposed to admit 7 candidates against 7 seats, out of 340 seats, for the MBBS/BDS Course, for the category 19 and 20 respectively, i.e., wards of terrorist/riots affected persons. The candidates in category 19 were held ineligible for admission, being grandchildren. The petitioner was not given admission in the MBBS Course, in the counselling held on 18.10.2013, against the 7th seat, for the said category, but was offered BDS Course and he was pursuing the same since 18.10.2013. Since the 7th seat was not being offered in the MBBS Course, CWP No.20481 of 2013 titled Arshpreet Kaur & another Vs. State of Punjab & others was filed by one Arshpreet Kaur and another, in this Court, seeking allocation of 7 seats for the category 19/20, in consonance with the decision dated 10.12.2012 of a Division Bench of this Court in LPA No.1749 of 2012 titled Gurkaran Singh Vs. State of Punjab & others. In the said writ petition, the petitioner was arrayed as respondent No.5 and the prayer of the said petitioner's, in the said case, was accepted on 10.12.2013, to the extent that 2% seats reserved for the category of terrorist affected persons would come to 7 seats instead of 6.