Judgment

HEGDE, J.:- In these two petitions under Art. 32 of the Constitution the petitioners who unsuccessfully sought admission to certain Medical Colleges in the State of Tamil Nadu have asked for a writ of mandamus to direct the State of Tamil Nadu to allot to each one of them a seat in one of the Government Medical Colleges in that State and for consequential orders.

2. In the State of Tamil Nadu, there are eight Medical Colleges out of which three are situate in the city of Madras, one in Madurai, one in Chingleput, one in Coimbatore, one in Thanjavur and one in Tirunelveli. The total seats available in Madras Colleges are 500. The sanctioned strength of seats in Madurai, Chingleput, Coimbatore, Thanjavur and Tirunelveli are 200,50,100, 200 and 75 respectively. Thus the total number of medical seats available in the Government Colleges for 1st year of M. B. B. S. course in the State of Tamil Nadu are 1125. We understand that for these seats nearly 7,000 students applied for admission.

3. In the previous years except in the year 1967-68, selection of candidates for admission to the lst year M. B. B. S. course was done on State wise basis. In the year 1967-68, the seats were distributed on district-wise basis but that scheme was held to be invalid by this Court in Minor P. Rajendran v. State of Madras, (1968) 2 SCR 786. Thereafter the selection was again made on State-wise basis in the years 1968-69 and 1969-70 but in the current year that system was given up and selection was directed to be made on the basis of what is known as unit-wise basis. Under the present scheme the Medical Colleges in the city of Madras were constituted as one unit and each one of the other Medical Colleges in the mofussil was constituted as a unit. Thus six units were created in the State. In respect of each one of the units a separate selection committee was constituted. The intending applicants were asked to apply to any one of the committees but they were advised to apply to the committee nearest to their place of residence as far as possible. They were told that if they applied to more than one committee their applications will be forwarded by the Government to only one of the committees.

4. A few seats out of the 1125 seats were reserved for certain special categories of students. As there is no dispute about these seats we shall not refer to them hereafter. Out of the remaining seats 41 per cent seats were reserved for students coming from socially and educationally backward classes, Schedule castes and Scheduled tribes. The rest of them were placed in the general pool.

5. In the State of Tamil Nadu actual marks are not being given in the Pre-University examination. The papers were valued on the basis of grades. There are all together four grades i. e. Grades A to D. For the purpose of selection to first year M. 13. B. S. course only marks obtained in the optional subjects were taken into consideration, Selection to the seats with which we are concerned in these petitions is confined to students who have taken in their Pre-University examination Physics, Chemistry and Biology as their optional subjects though each of these subjects carried a maximum of 100 marks thus a total of 300 marks, for the purpose of selection to the first year M. B. B. S. course the procedure prescribed was to take the minimum marks provided for the grade secured by the applicant in Chemistry and Physics and add them together and thereafter divide the total by two and to that add the minimum marks provided for the grade secured by the applicant in Biology. Thus the total marks in the optional subjects was reduced from 300 to 200. All the applicants in the general pool who secured 110 or more marks calculated on the basis of the formulae referred to earlier were called for interview by the selection committees. Selection committees were authorised to give a maximum of 75 marks at the interview. The selection committees were asked to award these marks on the basis of follo