PRIYA KAPOOR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, in this writ petition, has prayed that the Court may issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to give admission to the petitioner in the category of 'Rural Area (Payment)' to the B. D. S. Course.

(2.) The facts fall in a very narrow compass and can be stated as follows. The petitioner claims to be resident of village Dujjowal, Tehsil Ajnala, District Amritsar. This area is declared as 'rural area' by the State of Punjab and the petitioner stakes her claim on this basis. Shri Guru Ram Dass Institute of Dental Science and Research, Amritsar, has been established by Srimani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee and is a statutory body established under the Sikh Gurudwara Act, 1925. The Institute started working with effect from 1992-93 and is under the management of Shri Guru Ram Dass Hospital and, Charitable Trust, Amritsar. The Institute is affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

(3.) The petitioner further states that she completed her primary education from Government Primary School, Ghonewal, District Amritsar from 1-4-1981 to 4-4-1986. This school falls in rural area and certificate to this effect has been placed on record as Annexure P/1. Then she claims to have joined the Government Middle School, Machhiwala, Tehsil Ajnala, District Amritsar and studied in that school from 16-4-1986 to 31-3-1989 and successfully completed her middle standard examination from there, which is again in the rural area and Annexure P/2 is the certificate placed on record in this behalf. The petitioner joined the Government High School, Harsha Chhina, Amritsar, and studied there from 8-4-1989 to 31-3-1990. The petitioner submits that because of the disturbed conditions in the State of Punjab her father shifted to Amritsar City and she joined the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, The Mall, Amritsar and passed her matriculation examination by securing 634 / 800 marks. Certificate to this effect is also placed on record as Annexure P/4. This is the period when she studied in urban area and then again in 1993 her father was transferred to Moga and the conditions in the State of Punjab had improved and the petitioner along with her family again went to her village from where she successfully completed her plus-2 examination from a rural school. Certificate in this regard Annexure P/5 is on record. Respondent No. 2 issued a prospectus for admission to B. D. S. Course for the year 1994-95 and in this brochure a special category was carved out which was stated to be 'Rural Area Category'. She claims that she fulfilled all the eligibility conditions and the petitioner appeared in the P. M. T. test conducted by Punjabi University for 1994 under Roll No. 2072 and secured 139 marks out of 300. She was placed at No. 2426 in the merit list. The results were declared on 2-91994 and her name was shown at No. 11. Interviews of the candidates were held on 179-1994 and the petitioner was not selected in the final list. Her case is that the persons having lower merit than her have been given the seats reserved for 'Rural Area (Payment)' category and that she has been treated arbitrarily and discriminately. With these facts the petitioner has filed this writ petition under Arts. 226/227 of the Constitution of India.