RUBINA BOPARAI Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Judgment will dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos. 4217/93, 1450/92,14011/92, 772/93 and CWP No. 1985 of 1993. The facts are being taken from CWP No. 1985 of 1993.

(2.) The Central Board of Secondary Education issued a prospectus for holding the All India Pre-Medical Entrance Examination, 1992. It was inter alia provided in the prospectus that the application forms could be submitted on or before 6.2.1992. Whereas the Entrance Examination was to be held on 10.5.1992. It was further provided that this examination was being conducted exclusively for the 15% Merit positions for the Medical Colleges as specified in the directives of the Supreme Court issued from time to time and would be governed by the rules and regulations specified for the same by the Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and that the list of all the candidates who had been successful in the examination would be displayed in order of merit and a waiting list would also be prepared.

(3.) As per averments made in the writ petition, the reservation of 15% seats that had been covered by the prospectus was to be made in the Government Medical Colleges in all the States except the States of Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh and this exception had been carved out on the basis of the Supreme Court Judgment in Dinesh Kumar others v. Moti Lal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad and ors., 1986 AIR(SC) 1877 As the State of Punjab respondent No. 1 herein was represented before the Supreme Court in the aforesaid case, 15% seats were to be reserved in the State of Punjab as well, with the result that 52 seats for the MBBS and 12 seats for the BDS Courses became available. A note to this effect was also provided in the prospectus published by the CBSE and also in the prospectus issued under the Punjab Government's notification by the Punjabi University, Patiala wherein the test was to be conducted. The petitioner being fully eligible took the test and a total of 2610 candidates were declared successful. The petitioner was placed at merit No. 1765 and on this basis, was allocated to the North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling. The petitioner subsequently found that half of the seats falling in the 15% share given to the C.B.S.E. had been unilaterally usurped by the State of Punjab vide Annexure P1 dated 8.1.192 in which it was directed that "half of the seats out of total 52 seats for MBBS and 12 seats for BDS course out of quota of CBSE will be filled up by nomination and the remaining by the candidates of CBSE". It appears that 11 candidates thereafter were nominated to the MBBS and the BDS Courses in the State of Punjab. This writ petition was accordingly filed impugning the order Annexure P1 on the plea that it was contrary to the Supreme Court's directions in Dinesh Kumar's case to which the State of Punjab was also a party and that in the absence of any guidelines as to how the nominations for the aforesaid seats had to be made the instructions being arbitrary were liable to be struck down on that score as well.