KRISHMA BANSAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the public notice dated 06.08.2015 (Annexure P6) whereby the State has, in view of the judgment of the Apex Court in SLP Nos.16307 & 16308 of 2015 titled Medical Council of India Vs. Shri Basaveshwar Vidya Vardhak Sangha & another, decided on 06.07.2015, revised the admission criteria for the MBBS/BDS courses, for the session 2015 and opted for filling the vacant seats of NRI category on the basis of the marks obtained in 10+2 (qualifying examination) instead of selecting the candidates from the merit list of Pre Medical Entrance Test (for short, the 'PMET'). Further direction has been prayed for to fill the vacant seats of the MBBS/BDS in NRI category, on the basis of the PMET, given by the candidates of the general category, on the strength of Clause 23(vi) of the prospectus.

(2.) The pleaded case of the petitioner is that she had appeared in the PMET, 2015 held by the respondent No.2-University, for the 920 seats available in the State of Punjab and was ranked at 1069 (after revision:1136) in the merit list, in pursuance of the notification dated 30.03.2015 (Annexure P1) which had authorised respondent No.2 to conduct the said examination and to conduct centralized counselling. As per the said notification, 15% of the seats were reserved for the NRI candidates apart from other reservations and the last date of submission of the application was 29.04.2015 with late fees till 04.05.2015/07.05.2015. The petitioner claimed right on the ground that under Clause 23(vi) of the notification, being a General Category candidate was entitled to stake a claim to the NRI vacant quota seats since the said clause provided that counselling for the said quota seats was to be held earlier and in case of any seat remaining vacant, it was to go to the General Category and in Unaided Private Colleges/Minority Colleges to the General Category of Management/Minority quota. It was alleged that prior to the conduct of the PMET, the notification had been challenged, which was dismissed as withdrawn, at that stage, on 30.04.2015 (CWP No.8285 of 2015 titled Sanjana Goyal & others Vs. State of Punjab & others). The notification and the prospectus were again challenged in CWP No.10903 of 2015 by the said petitioners wherein the plea taken was that the admission were being made in violation of the Rules 4 & 5 of Regulations of Medical Education, 1997, issued by the Medical Council of India (for short, the 'MCI') by respondent No.3. This Court had issued directions that the respondents would strictly adhere to the terms of the prospectus and the notification and could fill up the seats by candidates who had secured marks in the PMET examination. Resort to filling up the seats would be taken by adhering to the 10+2 qualifying examination, when the quota of PMET was exhausted. Reference was made to the circular dated 16.01.2015 (Annexure P5), issued by the MCI in which it was directed that NRI seats would be filled up by holding the Common Entrance Test (for short, the 'CET') and that the said circular was quashed by the Karnataka High Court in W.P. Nos.102916-102917/2015 titled Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Education Society Vs. SDM College of Medical Sciences & Hospital, Dharwad, decided on 17.04.2015, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in SLP(c) nos.16229-16230 of 2015 on 06.07.2015.

(3.) The factual aspect regarding the number of seats, as per the impugned notice was that there were 102 seats in the NRI quota, in view of the 15% reservations in all private institutes and 13 seats in Government Medical Colleges at Patiala and Amritsar and 3 seats in Government Dental College, Amritsar and 4 seats in the Government Dental College, Patiala in the BDS course. Only 64 eligible NRI candidates had applied and out of that, only 52 had appeared and as per the qualifying criteria, since 50% marks had to be obtained in the PMET, only 17 candidates had qualified. The State, by its impugned notice dated 06.08.2015, was proposing to fill up the 85 balance seats from the NRI's who had not qualified in the PMET, 2015, only on the basis of their 50% marks in the 10+2 or equivalence examination or to those NRI candidates who merely belong to the State of Punjab or other states only on the strength of their 10+2 marks, in the descending order of preference and who had not even sat in the PMET.