MANOJ SHARMA Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since in all the above captioned petitions questions of facts and law are common, same were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) Precisely, the challenge in the instant petition has been laid to condition of mandatory period of service as provided under Clauses 6.1 and 11.1.2 of "the Post-Graduation/Super Specialty Policy for Regulating Admission to various Post Graduation and Super Specialty Courses in Medical Education Applicable in the State of Himachal Pradesh" (for short, 'Policy'), formulated by the respondent-State, whereby it has been provided that the General Duty Officers (for short, 'GDOs'), seeking sponsorship, besides being in regular service of the State should have completed mandatory period of service of 4/5 years in the State after post-graduation (for short, 'PG'), if the candidate had pursued PG as a sponsored candidate.

(3.) For having bird's eye view of the matter, certain undisputed facts, which may be relevant for the adjudication of the case are that at present there are seven Government Medical Colleges and one private medical college in the State, which impart medical education. Two medical colleges i.e. Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (for short, 'IGMC') and Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College and Hospital, Tanda (for short, 'RPGMC') being well established and old medical colleges have sufficient provision and infrastructure to provide PG degrees and super-specialty courses in certain disciplines, whereas, remaining five medical colleges are at the stage of infancy and as such, do not have the requisite infrastructure and faculty to provide an opportunity to the medical graduates to improve their qualifications by doing PG and super-specialty courses. Since, in two well established government medical colleges at Shimla and Tanda PG courses as well as super-specialty courses in all disciplines of medical sciences are not available, State of Himachal Pradesh, with a view to train/impart higher education to its in-service candidates formulated/notified a policy for sponsoring GDOs for doing PG/MS degree/diploma in masters courses from the Colleges/Institutions outside the State, vide Notification dated 3.10.2017 (Annexure P-2 of CWP no. 2176 of 2021, titled Manoj Sharma vs. Sate of Himachal Pradesh and others), which is reproduced as under: