SANJU LEGHA Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners herein have filed this writ petition challenging the action of the respondent No. 2-the Convener/coordinator, Federation of Private Medical and Dental Colleges in Rajasthan, who had published a prospectus for Rajasthan Medical Common Admission Test for the academic year 2005-06 for filing-up the seats of private Medical and dental Colleges incorporating a provision as follows:- " 50% of the total seats are reserved for candidates of Rajasthan domicile and 50% of the seats are reserved for the candidates out of Rajasthan. "

(2.) THIS provision gave a cause to the petitioners to file this writ petition alleging that the respondent Federation although is following its prospectus and has reserved 50% of the seats for the candidates of Rajasthan, remaining 50% of the seats which were to be reserved for the candidates out of Rajasthan, as per the prospectus, has not been allotted to them by the Federation while granting admission to the selected candidates who have found place on the merit list.

(3.) THE State, in the process, appears to have made a convenient interpretation of the judgment and order of the Supreme Court in my opinion as `certain percentage' certainly cannot be construed as cent per cent of the entire seats available and, therefore, if 50% reservation was made for the candidates of Rajasthan, the balance also cannot be allotted to candidates hailing from Rajasthan but it has to be allotted strictly as per the merit position of the candidates on the merit list from all over India including Rajasthan. However, it also cannot be interpreteted so as to infer that balance 50% seats had to be allotted to candidates outside Rajasthan since that would be clearly contrary to the judgment and order of the Supreme Court. But the difficulty arises as none of the candidates had challenged the clause printed in the prospectus which laid down that 50% seats are reserved for the candidates of the State of Rajasthan and 50% seats are reserved for the candidates out of Rajasthan, as a result of which, some student outside State of Rajasthan, although are not in the merit list after declaration of the results of the common admission test, nurtured the hope that a seat may be available to them if 50% of the seats are filled by the candidates from the State of Rajasthan, meaning thereby that if there are students who are higher on the merit list as per the common merit list but they might be hailing from the State of Rajasthan, then those seats will have to be slipped to be allotted to the students outside the State of Rajasthan. This unnecessary controversy has arisen on account of misinterpretation of the letter of the State Government as also the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court by the Federation which before publishing the prospectus, ought to have examined the judgment and order of the Supreme Court carefully and could have discussed the matter with the State Government authorities. That having not been done, an unnecessary dispute has emerged due to which the petitioners have filed this writ petition. Ultimately, the fact remains that the directions issued by the judgment and order of the Supreme Court, given out in the case of Islamic Academy of Education vs. State of Karnataka (supra) has to prevail over the entire controversy and the direction given out therein has to prevail.