PANKAJ GANDOTRA Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE are in all 31 petitions, filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 103 of Jammu and Kashmir constitution by as many as 56 writ petitioners. They had appeared in the entrance examination for MBBS/BDS courses conducted by the Competent Authority, Entrance Examinations Jammu and Kashmir (hereinafter to be referred to as ˜Competent Authority) for the academic session 1991 -92. They have challenged the selection made by the Competent Authority and have also challenged the nominations made to various Medical Colleges in the country outside Jammu and Kashmir State, by the State Government in favour of some persons, a few of whom have been impleaded as party respondents in these petitions.

(2.) COMPETENT Authority, vide its Notification No. 2/MBBS -BDS/ CAEE of 1991 dated 19 -7 -1991 invited applications on prescribed forms from eligible candidates for admission to entrance test for selection to MBBS/BDS courses in the Medical Colleges at Jammu and Srinagar and in the Government Dental College, Srinagar. Only those candidates who had attained the age of 17 years on or before 3Lst December, 1990, and who had passed Higher Secondary Part -II/ TDC -I/10+2 of Higher Secondary Examination ˜or equivalent examination from a recognized Board/ University with English, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology as subjects, were eligible for applying for the said admission to the said entrance test. Whereas permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir alone were eligible to compete in the open merit and reserved categories, non permanent residents were entitled to and eligible for competing only against the seats earmarked for them under Government Order No. 402 of 1986 and Government Order No. 260 -Trainings of 1990. Candidates who claimed consideration for selection on the basis of their belonging to any of the reserved categories, as specified in Notification SRO 272 of - 1982, were required to attach certificates issued by the concerned competent authorities in proof of their belonging to the reserved categories, and in case of candidates claiming consideration under the Sports category as per the aforesaid Notification, they were required to submit Certificates of participation in the concerned sports, by the and Kashmir sports Council in their respective fields. The recommendation of the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council in favour of a candidate about his being a sports person of outstanding proficiency was an essential pre -requisite for such candidates consideration in the Sports Category. In pursuance of this Notification, the entrance examination was conducted simultaneously on 14th and 15th September 1991, at Jammu and Srinagar. Vide Notification No. CAEE/MBBS/BDS/1991 dated 26th September, 1991, the Controller of Examination Competent Authority declared the result of this examination and published the merit list of the successful candidates, who had been selected in the said entrance examination in the MBBS and BDS courses in the two Medical Colleges at Jammu and Srinagar and Dental College, Srinagar. The selection was stated to have been made strictly on the basis of merit in the entrance test and in accordance with the number of seats available in the respective Colleges. It is necessary and advantageous to mention here that before the result was declared vide the aforesaid Notification dated 26th September 1991, complaints had been received by the Competent Authority from a very large number of candidates who had appeared in the Entrance Examination and from various other quarters to the effect that some questions in the Biology paper were out of syllabus, as prescribed and, because of these questions being out of syllabus, the candidates were put to hardship, inconvenience and resultant loss. On receipt of these reports, representations and complaints, the Competent Authority started making enquiries and investigations and referred the matter to experts in Botany and Zoology subjects, which together constituted Biology paper. The main thrust of the complaints was that the questions in the Biology paper were based on the syllabus prescribed by Central Board of School Education and the students who had qualified the Higher Secondary Examination from the State Board of School Education, bad been put to a disadvantage. Complaints had also been received about a couple of questions in Chemistry paper also being out of syllabus. After consulting the experts in the three subjects, receiving their written reports and after proper evaluation of the entire material, seven questions in Biology paper and one in Chemistry paper were taken out of consideration for the purposes of evaluation of the marks in these two papers, It is worthwhile to state here that the entrance examination carried in all a total aggregate of 210 marks. In fact, in the three papers of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, there were 70 questions each and each question carried one mark, because all these 210 questions were objective type with the candidates being required to answer from out of four multiple choices indicated against each question, since, each question carried one mark for the right answer and nil mark for wrong answer. Because eight questions from Biology and Chemistry papers were taken out of consideration, accordingly, eight marks from the aggregate of 210 marks were deleted and it was for these reasons, and, in this background, that the result was declared on 26th September, 1991, with 202 marks being considered as aggregate rather than 210 as originally prescribed.

(3.) IT appears that the controversy regarding the questions being out of syllabus had not died down nor had it been put to an end to, because complaints still kept on pouring from a very large section of students and other quarters that some more questions in Physics students and Chemistry paper had been found to be out of syllabus. Despite the result been declared on 26th September, 1991, the Competent Authority on receipt of these complaints once again processed the subject of the question being out of syllabus, and re -consulted and once again referred the matter to experts. After re -consultation with the experts, re -evaluation of the entire matter and on the basis of re -consideration, it was found out that four more questions, in addition to the eight already deleted, were found to have been out of syllabus. Out of these four questions, three were in Physics paper and one in Chemistry, It was, thus, found that in all 12 questions had come to be included in the three papers which were out of syllabus and after satisfying itself about this fact, the Competent Authority decided to delete a total number of 12 questions from consideration in processing the result and, accordingly, decided that the result be processed on the basis of the aggregate of marks being 198, instead of 210. This necessitated re -evaluation of the result and, accordingly another Notification was issued on 11 -10 -1991, whereby a fresh list of successul candidates had been issued, who had secured admission in the two Medical Colleges and in the Dental College under different categories. It is also worthwhile to observe here that during the intervening period between 26th September, 1991 (the date of issuance of the first result based on the deletion of 8 questions), and 11th October, 1991, (date of issuance of second result based on the deletion of 12 questions), 25 additional seats had been made available for the Medical College, Jammu on the recommendation of the Medical Council of India and, with this increase in the number of seats, a total of 200 seats were available in the two Medical Colleges and the Dental College. After the issuance of the result on 11 -10 -1991, the key adopted for evaluation of the answer sheets of the candidates in respect of 198 questions was also, published by the Competent Authority. This key indicated Serial numbers of various questions deleted from the evaluation in each paper, under different series.