PALLAB MAZUMDAR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ application has been filed by seven Doctors who completed their MBBS course in the State of Bihar but are not domiciles of Bihar and on this account alone i.e. on account of being residents of outside Bihar, they are facing ineligibility to take PGMAT-2000, a test conducted by Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board for admission to Post-graduate courses in various medical colleges situated within the State of Bihar. The obstacle in the way of their eligibility is clause 5.2 introduced for the first time in the Prosepectus for PGMAT-2000 which requires that the candidate in order to be eligible for appearing in PGMAT-2000 must also be a resident of Bihar. Besides that, clause 5.2 further requires that any one of the candidate's father-mother/husband-wife must be a permanent resident of Bihar or must be in Bihar Government service or in one of the specified All India service allotted to Bihar or public sector undertaking of Government of India or in Defence Service posted in Bihar at the time of filling up the application.

(2.) At the stage of admission of this case, by order dated 8-5-2000 this Court took notice of observations of the Apex Court in the last part of paragraph 22 of the judgment in the case of Pradeep Jain v. Union of India AIR 1984 SC 1420 wherein the Apex Court clearly observed that it would be desirable not to provide for any reservation based on residence requirement within the State and on that basis, permitted the petitioners to take the examination if they fulfil other eligibility criteria. It was further observed by this Court that their admission shall be subject to result of this writ application and after the publication of result it shall be open for either of the parties to move the Court for earlier hearing of the case.

(3.) At the stage of hearing also learned counsel for the petitioner placed reliance upon judgments of the Apex Court in the case of Pradeep Jain (supra) and in the case of Parag Gupta v. University of Delhi, AIR 2000 SC 2319 and also upon recommendations of Medical Council of India on Postgraduate Medical Education (Annexure-4) to submit that the Apex Court has clearly disapproved of any residential eligibility criteria for admission into Post-graduate medical education; even institutional preference received limited disapproval in the case of Pradeep Jain (supra) and according to recommendations of the Medical Council which has been adopted and approved as "Regulation under S.33 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956" merit alone has been recognised as crierion for admission to Post-graduate medical courses which may be evaluated either by performance at the MBBS examination and during the course of internship and houseman-ship or through a competitive entrance examination.