Full Judgment Text
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PETITIONER:
RAVINDRA KUMAR RAI
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
STATE OF MAHARASHTRA & OTHERS
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 27/02/1998
BENCH:
S.C. AGRAWAL, M. JAGANNADHA RAO, A.P. MISRA
ACT:
HEADNOTE:
JUDGMENT:
J U D G M E N T
M. JAGANNADHA RAO. J.
This writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution
of India has been filed against the State of Maharashtra
(1st respondent) and the Medical Education Department of the
State (2nd respondent) for the issue of a writ or direction
commanding the State to hold a Combined Entrance Examination
for admission to Medical Colleges in the said State and to
direct the State to start the process for holding the said
competitive examination for the students to be admitted into
medical colleges from 1998 onwards. The writ petition is
based mainly on the Regulations made by the Indian Medicals
Council recently in 1997.
The petitioner has filed this case as a public interest
case and has also stated that his daughter is going to
appear for the 12th standard examination from the Kendriya
Vidyalaya, 1, Colaba, Mumbai in march 1998 and that she will
become eligible for admission to medical colleges in 1998.
Petitioner states that 85% of seats in Maharashtra are
available for local students because 15% are to go to the
All India Pool. It is pointed out that in maharashtra there
are a large number of medical colleges affiliated to various
universities like the Bombay University, Pune University,
Nagpur University etc. As of today admissions to the
colleges under these University are being made by the
Medical Education Department of Government (2nd respondent)
solely on the basis of marks obtained at the qualifying
examinations which are conducted by three Boards, namely,
the ISC Board, the CBSE Board and the Maharashtra Higher
Secondary Examination Board, Under that system, and 2nd
respondent invites applications from students and allocates
the students to the Medical Colleges in the State, some of
them being Government colleges and some under Private
Management and Municipal Corporations of Bombay and Thane.
It is pointed out that according to rulings of the supreme
Court., admissions to medical colleges should be based
strictly on merit and that there should be proper criteria
for admissions. Reference in this connection is made to the
Regulations framed recently by the medical Council of India
with the previous sanction of the Central Government by
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virtue of power conferred on it. Under section 33 of the
Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. These Regulations are
called ’Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997’.
(Published in Part III, Section 4 of Gazette of India dated
17.5.1997). Regulation 4 prescribes, in considerable detail,
the eligibility criteria for students with various types of
education leading to 10+2 or its equivalent. Regulation 5 is
important and reads as follows:
"Reg.5:Selection of Students: The
selection of students to medical
college shall be bases solely on
merit of the candidate and for
determination of merit, the
following criteria be adopted
uniformly throughout the country:
(1) In States having only one
Medical College and one university
/board /examining body conducting
the qualifying examination, the
marks obtained at such qualifying
examination may be taken into
consideration;
(2) In States, having more than one
university /board /examining body
conducting the qualifying
examination (or where there is more
than one medical college under the
administrative control of one
authority) a competitive entrance
examination should be held so as to
achieve a uniform evaluation as
there may be variation of standard
at qualifying examination conducted
by different agencies;
(3) Where there are more than one
college in a state and only one
University/board conducting the
qualifying examination, then a
joint selection board be
constituted for all the colleges;
(4) A competitive entrance
examination is absolutely necessary
in the cases of Institutions of All
India character;
(5) To be eligible for competitive
entrance examination, the candidate
must have passed any of the
qualifying examinations as
enumerated under the head note
’Eligibility Criteria’.
The proviso to the Regulation prescribes the percentage
of marks which are to be obtained at the qualifying or/and
competitive examinations by students including those
belonging to SC/ST or O.B.C. classification. It is the
petitioner’s case that sub-clause (2) of Regulation 5 is
attracted to the State of Maharashtra.
A counter affidavit has been filed by the Deputy
Secretary to the Government of Maharashtra in the Medical
Education and Drug Department. It is stated there that the
case of the State of Maharashtra does not fall under sub-
clause (2) of Regulation 5 but falls under sub-clause (3) of
Regulation 5. It is accepted that there are several medical
colleges and university in the State of maharashtra and that
there are also various qualifying examining bodies i.e. (i)
ICS Board (ii) CBSE Board and (iii) Maharashtra Higher
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Secondary Board. Under the Maharashtra Board, there are 7
divisional examination boards and the number of the students
who qualify at 10+2 stage through the Maharashtra Board,
would be more than 1,10,000. Those who pass from CBSE would
be around 900 and represent only 0.5% or 0.8% of the
students who qualify in 10 + 2. It is therefore contended
that for a small number of students appearing for the CBSE
examination, it will not be proper to categorize the State
of Maharashtra into sub-clause (2) of Regulation 5. It is
also pointed out that the Governor of Maharashtra has issued
proceedings under Article 371(2) (c) in regard to 3 regions
Vidharba, Marathwada and rest of Maharashtra, and the
admissions for 1997-98 have to be made by the Development
Boards which are separately constituted for the 3 regions.
Admissions are not University wise but are Development-
region wise. It is stated that it will be difficult to
implement the directions of the Governor if a Common
Entrance Examination is to be held for the whole State. It
is also stated that it will be an extremely arduous task to
conduct a Common Entrance Examination for 50,000 students.
it involves setting of papers, evaluation of answer sheets
and preparation of merit lists after taking into account the
choices of the students in respect of medical and Dental
colleges and this will prolong the admission process. It is
said that holding Common Entrance Examination for medical
and not for Engineering courses will be discriminatory. It
is then stated that the petitioner’s daughter is yet to pass
10+2 and petitioner could even make his daughter apply for
the 15% All India Pool. Rules for admission to 1998-99 are
yet to be published, the writ petition is premature and is
liable to be dismissed.
We have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner,
the learned counsel for the State of Maharashtra. The
learned counsel for the Medical Council of India supported
the writ petitioner’s contention.
We may at the outset point out that inasmuch as there
are three Boards in Maharashtra State which conduct the
qualifying examination and inasmuch as there are several
Universities, the State of Maharashtra would clearly fall
under sub-clause (2) of Regulation 5 made by the Medical
Council and not under sub-clause(3). The contention for the
State that candidates from CBSE Board are small in number
does not appeal to us. Inasmuch as there is no dispute that
more than one Board conducts the qualifying examination and
the Universities are more than one in number, sub-clause (3)
of Regulation 5, in our view, is not attracted. It is also
not possible for the State to say that conducting a common
entrance examination will delay the admission process or
that it will be extremely difficult to conduct the
examination. In fact the statement in the counter affidavit
to the effect that the State has been conducting a common
examination for 1,80,000 at the 10+2 level in the 7
divisional boards would itself show that the State is
capable of conducting a common Entrance Examination for
admission to medical colleges, even if the number of
students is large. We may also say that in several States,
Common Entrance Examination is being conducted even before
1997 when these Regulations made by the Medical Council came
into force. In fact in some States, entrance examination is
conducted jointly for Engineering and medical students also.
We fail to see why the State of Maharashtra should say that
it will be an arduous task.
In a recent judgment of this Court in Shri Chander
Chinar Bada Akhara Udasin Society & Others vs. State of J&K
& Others [1996 (5) SCC 732], in the context of admission to
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Medical Colleges, and the need for a Common Entrance
Examination, this Court observed (p.738) as follows:
"It need not be pointed out that
the percentage of marks secured by
different applicants at different
types of examinations at the higher
secondary stage cannot be treated
as uniform. Some of such
examinations are conducted at the
State level, others at the national
level including the Indian School
Certificate examination. The
percentage secured at different
examinations are bound to vary
according to standard applied by
such examination bodies, which is
well known. As such a common
entrance examination has to be
held."
It has been, therefore, held that a ’Commom Entrance
Examination’ for admission to Medical Colleges has to be
held.
We next come to the contention of the respondent based
upon Article 371 (2)(c) of the Constitution of India. That
Article permits the Governor to require an equitable
arrangement be made for providing adequate facilities for
’technical education and vocational training’ in respect of
the areas Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra.
Assuming that medical education falls within the scope of
the said Article, we do not think that compliance with
Regulation 5(2) of the Regulations made by the Medical
Council of Indian will in any manner come in the way of
giving effect to the provisions of Article 371(2)(c).
Finally, it was argued for the respondent that. in any
event, it will not be possible to conduct a ‘common entrance
examination’ for the academic year starting from 1998
inasmuch as, just now, the time available is too short. We
cannot agree. These Regulations have come into force as long
back as on 4.3.1997. There is, in our view, sufficient time
available and all that is necessary is that the State must
immediately draw up the programme and time table for
conducting the Common Entrance Examination for 1998 year and
for other steps in that behalf.
In the result, we allow the writ petition and direct
the State of Maharashtra and its Medical Education
Department to start the process for holding the Common
Entrance Examination for admission to Medical Colleges in
Maharashtra for the year 1998 and conduct the said
Examination in accordance with the ‘Regulations on Graduate
Medical Education 1997’ made by the Medical Council of
India. Writ petition is allowed as stated above.