(1.) Respondent No. 3, the Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, issued a prospectus in November, 1997 calling for applications for admission to the Post Graduate Degree/Diploma Courses for the session 1997-98, to start from January, 1998. As per the prospectus, the last date for the submission of applications forms was December 12, 1997. As the petitioner fulfilled the requisite qualifications, he applied within time, took the entrance test on December 26, 1997 and on the declaration of the result obtained 116 out of 140 marks whereas respondent No. 4, Dr. Roy P. Daniel, obtained 97 out of 140 marks. It is the petitioner's case that when the final merit list was notified on the notice board on December 31, 1997, respondent No. 4 was shown as having obtained 121 marks and was granted admission to the Post Graduate Degree Course in the speciality of Orthopaedics whereas the petitioner was put on the waiting list at No. 1 in the said speciality. It is the admitted case that the petitioner was nevertheless granted admission in the Post Graduate Degree Course in Anaesthesia. The petitioner has accordingly come to this Court claiming that Dr. Daniel, respondent No. 4 was entitled to only 117 marks on the basis of criteria laid down in the prospectus whereas the petitioner had in fact obtained 118 marks on the basis of that criteria. Allegation of favouritism in favour of respondent No. 4 have also been made on the ground that he was a Christian by denomination.
(2.) On notice of motion, a reply has been filed by respondent No. 3. It has been admitted that respondent No. 4 had obtained 97 marks in the written test but he had been awarded 5 additional marks for previous service, 7 marks for internal assessment and 7 marks for interview, making a total of 121 marks whereas the petitioner, who had obtained 116 marks in the entrance test, had been granted 2 additional marks for interview. It has been submitted in the reply that 5 marks that had been awarded to respondent No. 4 for previous service rendered in the Christian Fellowship Hospital, Oddenchatram and Sewa Bhawan, Jagdishpur as both these Hospitals were situated in a Rural area. The allegation of bias in favour of respondent No. 4 has also been denied.
(3.) A replication has also been filed by the petitioner in which a plea has been taken that respondent No. 4 was not entitled to 5 marks that had been granted to him of previous service and if these 5 marks are deducted from 121 marks (making a total of 116), the petitioner who had 118 marks, was higher in merit.