Important Point
Direction is issued to State of Maha­rashtra in public interest litiga­tion under Art. 32 of Constitution to start the pro­cess of holding a combined Entrance Exa­mination for the students to be admitted into Medical Colleges of Maharashtra from 1998 onwards in accordance with Regula­tions on Graduate Medical Examination, 1997 made u/s 33 of Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.

Judgment

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 Medical Council recently in 1997.

2. 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 Universities 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, the 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 virtue of powers 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 based 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 examinatio