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2005(2) Supreme 658
Supreme Court of India
(Under Art. 32 of the Constitution of India)
Y.K. Sabharwal, D.M. Dharmadhikari and Tarun Chatterjee, JJ.
Mridul Dhar (Minor) and Anr. —Petitioners
versus
Union of India and Ors. —Respondents
Writ Petition (C) No. 306 of 2004
With
W.P. (C) Nos. 308 and 345 of 2004
Decided on 12-1-2005
Counsel for the Parties
For the Appearing Parties : Mohan Parasaran and R. Mohan, Additional Solicitor Generals, Vivek Tankha, A.K. Ganguly, Sr. Advocates, Prashant Kumar, Ms. Pooja Dhar, Joseph Pookkatt, Anurag Sharma, Rohan Thawani, M.K. Upadhyay, S. Wasim A. Qadri, Mohd. Saud, Chander Prakash, Lakshmi Raman Singh, Pragati Nikhra Singh, D.K. Sinha, Jasbir Malik, S.K. Sabharwal, Vishwajit Singh, Ashok Kumar Singh, K.C. Kaushik, Rahul Kaushik, S.C. Gupta, Ms. Pratibha Jain, Ugra Shankar Prasad, Goodwill Indeevar, Ms. Malini Poduval, Maninder Singh, Mrs. Pratibha M. Singh, Angad Mirdha, Saurabh Mishra, Ms. Sandhya Goswami, Ms. Sushma Suri, D.S. Mahra, Sakesh Kumar, S.K. Agnihotri, Bimal Roy Jad, Ms. Sunita Pandit, Gopal Singh, Anurag Sharma, Rituraj Biswas, Bhavanishankar V. Gadnis, Mrs. Sunita B. Rao, Mrs. Asha G. Nair, Ms. Suparna Srivastava, Rajesh Srivastava, Ms. Deepti Singh, Rahul Srivastava, Subramonium Prasad, Abhay Kumar, Rahul, V. Senthil Kumar, Avatar Singh Rawat, Addl. Advocate General for State of Uttaranchal, Jitendra Kr. Bhatia, Ms. Rachana Srivastava, Govind Kaushik, J.S. Attri, Pramod Kumar Yadav, Ms. Krishna Sarma, J.R. Luwang, V.G. Pragasam, Upamanyu Hazarika, Satya Mitra, Aruneshwar Gupta, Addl. Advocate General for State of Rajasthan, Naveen Kumar Singh, Ms. Shivangi, Mrs. Sunita R. Singh, B.B. Singh, Gopal Prasad, Anand Shekhar, Mukesh K. Giri, Neeraj K. Jain, Sanjay Singh, Ms. Kavita Wadia, Sanjay R. Hegde, Ms. Kamini Jaiswal, Saqib, Manoj Saxena, S.K. Mittra, M.P. Meharia, Tara Chandra Sharma, Ms. Neelam Sharma, Ms. Shipra Ghosh, K.R. Sasiprabhu, Radha Shyam Jena, Ravindra Keshavrao Adsure and K.L. Janjani, Advocates.
Held: 1. All participating States and Union Territories, Board of Secondary Education shall declare 10 + 2 result by 10th June of every year and make available the marksheet to the students by 15th June.
The aforesaid condition would not apply to West Bengal for the year 2005. As already noticed, the West Bengal would make available to the concerned students the marksheets by 15th June, 2005.
Heads of Boards would be personally liable to ensure compliance.
2. The time table mentioned in Notification dated 25th February, 2004 shall be strictly adhered to by all concerned including States and Union Territories and results of State Medical/Dental Entrance Examination shall be declared before 15th of June.
3. The States/Union Territories shall complete the admission process of first round of State Level Medical/Dental College admission by 25th July i.e. a week before start of second round counseling or allotment of seats under All India Quota. The correct vacancy position shall be intimated by the Chief Secretary to the DGHS by 26th July. It shall be verified by the Head of the Institution/or Head of the Medical Institution/Health Department in the State.
4. It shall be the responsibility of all concerned including Chief Secretaries of each State/Union Territories and/or Health Secretaries to ensure compliance of the directions of this Court and requisite time schedule as laid down in the Regulations and non-compliance would make them liable for requisite penal consequences.
5. All seats in All India Quota must be fully disclosed giving details of the date of recognition/renewal to DGHS before a date to be notified by DGHS and the same shall be duly published.
6. By 31st October, the State through Chief Secretaries/Health Secretaries shall file a report in regard to admissions with the DGHS giving details about the adherence to a time schedule and admission granted as per the prescribed quota. The recalcitrant States, particularly officers personally will have to face consequences for violation.
7. The DGHS shall file by 31st January, 2005 report in regard to feasibility of conducting counseling through the process of video conferencing.
8. The DGHS shall file report within three months on the aspect of Section 10-A seats being subjected to 15 per cent All India Quota and about the increase of the quota from 15 per cent to 20 per cent.
9. The DGHS shall also file a report within three months on the aspect of constitution of high-power Committee/Ombudsman.
10. The seats allotted upto 15th July, shall also be subjected to respective State Quotas.
11. If any private medical college in a given academic year for any reason grants admission in its management quota in excess of its prescribed quota, the management quota for the next academic year shall stand reduced so as to set off the effect of excess admission in the management quota in the previous academic year.
12. The time schedule for grant of admission to postgraduate courses shall also be adhered to.
13. For granting admission, the merit determined by competitive examination shall not be tinkered with by making a provision like grant of marks by mode of interview or any other mode.
14. Time schedule for establishment of new college or to increase intake in existing college, shall be adhered to strictly by all concerned.
15. Time schedule provided in Regulations shall be strictly adhered to by all concerned failing which defaulting party would be liable to be personally proceeded with.
16. Copy of the judgment shall be sent to Chief Secretaries of all States/Union Territories for compliance. (Para 35)
Judgment
Y.K. Sabharwal, J.—About two decades ago, on June 22, 1984 in Dr. Pradeep Jain & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. [(1984) 3 SCC 654], it was directed that admissions in medical colleges or institutions run by the Union of India or State Government or a Municipal or other local authorities for MBBS and BDS courses to the extent of at least 30 shall be granted on the basis of All India Entrance Examination and 50 in respect of post graduate courses. The percentage of seats to be allotted on All India basis was modified in Dr. Dinesh Kumar & Ors. (II) v. Motilal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad & Ors. [(1985) 3 SCC 22] and in Dr. Dinesh Kumar & Ors. (II) v. Motilal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad & Ors. [(1986) 3 SCC 727]. For MBBS/BDS courses, the All India Quota was directed to be 15 of the total number of seats and 25 of total number of seats for post-graduate courses. The percentage of post-graduate courses has been increased to 50 {Saurabh Chaudri & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. [(2003) 11 SCC 146]}. The higher percentage would be operational from the academic year 2005 {[Dr. Saurabh Chaudri & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. [(2004) 5 SCC 618]}.
2. The question whether the All India Quota of MBBS/BDS courses shall be increased from its present 15 is one aspect but the real and main aspect to be considered is about giving full effect to 15 quota by including all seats while working out 15 quota and by strictly adhering to the time schedule by the State colleges and institutions.
3. The aforesaid aspects come to light when this petition was filed on 10th July, 2004 by two students through their father, as legal guardian, they being minors, apprehending that they may be deprived of seat in All India Quota despite having secured fairly high ranking on merits in All India Entrance Examination taken by about 2,00,000 students. It was, inter alia, brought to the notice of the Court that various States had not complied with the time schedule for completion of the admission process and had not given full information to DGHS besides not taking into consideration many seats while working out 15 All India Quota. On 29th July, 17 States/Union Territories through their Chief Secretaries and Secretaries of their Health Department were directed to supply to the Director General Health Services (DGHS), the requisite information as to the date of the tests conducted by the States, the dates of first counseling and the dates of joining of the candidates. This information was of paramount importance as the second counseling for the allotment of 15 All India Quota was to commence from 1st August. In absence of the requisite correct information, meritorious students looking for admission in this category on the basis of All India Entrance Examination could be seriously prejudiced. The importance of the time frame has been noticed in brief in the order dated 2nd August, 2004 which reads as under:
“In Regulations (Graduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2004 published in the Gazette of India dated 1st March, 2004, a time schedule for the completion of the admission procedure for the First MBBS Course has been provided for (Appendix - E). The said time schedule provides that the second round of counseling for allotment of seats from waiting list from All India Entrance Examination shall be filled by the Central Government by 8th August. It also provides that first round of counseling/admission of seats filled up by the state/governments/union territories/institutions shall be over by 25th of July of each year. The time gap of two weeks between the first round of counseling/admission of seats by the State Governments/Union Territories and second round of counseling for allotment of seats from the All India quota seems to have been provided for so that such of the students who, in the first instance may have got admission out of the allocation by the Central Government, may change over to the seat allotted by the state gover
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