BHAGWANT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether the Director of Sports, Punjab, Chandigarh, who has issued C-II grade sports certificate to a student on the basis of which he can seek admission to a seat reserved for sportsmen/women in the Govt. Medical/Dental College, can cancel that certificate without affording an opportunity of hearing to the affected student, is the spinal question, which falls for determination in this letters patent appeal.

(2.) Equally at issue is the question as to whether respondent Nos. 1, 2 and 3 were stopped by the doctrine of promissory estoppel from changing the criteria for admission to the Government Medical/Dental Colleges notified in the official gazette and incorporated in the prospectus issued for this purpose to the detriment of a student, who acting upon the representations contained in the executive instructions prospectus, applied for admission to such institutions and took the common entrance examination.

(3.) There are three state owned and run Medical Colleges in Punjab with an annual intake of 360 students in the M.B.B.S. Course. There is a State Dental College at Amritsar, with an annual admission of 30 students and the Dental wing of the Government Medical College at Patiala with an annual intake of 20 students for the B.D.S. Course. On the recommendation of the Medical Council of India Admission to the M.B.B.S. Courses in these Institutions is made every year on the basis of competitive entrance examination held to determine the relative merits of the candidates. The purpose of selecting candidates through a common entrance examination is to judge their merits with a common yardstick because standard of awarding marks in the examinations varies from University to University.