(1.) THE petitioner, Rajesh Aggarwal, who failed to secure admission to the M. B. B. S. / B. D. S. in the Medical College, Rohtak, has impugned the reservation of 20 seats for socially, educationally and economically weaker sections of the Society other than the scheduled castes / scheduled tribes and backward classes and has sought a mandamus directing the respondents to pool the said 20 seats with general category seats and consider the petitioner's name for admission in accordance with the merit list prepared of the general category candidates.
(2.) THE petitioner's contention is that the said reservation is violative of Arts. 14 and 15 of the Constitution. It was asserted that Art. 15 (4) of the Constitution permits exception of the basis of social and educational backwardness and that too for those who happened to be both socially and educationally backward, that is, any such person had to satisfy the combined criteria of social and educational backwardness; that no exception was envisaged on the ground of economic backwardness; and that since the respondent University has taken economic backwardness also into consideration, so the classification in question is violative of Art. 15 and is not covered by clause (4) thereof.
(3.) THE assertion of the petitioner that the authorities in this case have envisaged the judging of backwardness individually on the basis of social, educational and economic backwardness and not on the basis of the social, educational and economic backwardness collectively is factually incorrect. The contention is based on the unamended provisions of the prospectus referred to in the writ petition which had been duly amended and clarified well before the admission and interviews, as averred in the written statement filed on behalf of the respondent University, wherein it is clearly mentioned that the criteria for backwardness of a candidate was social, educational and economic backwardness taken together.