JUDGMENT

S.RAJENDRA BABU, J.

(1) LEAVE granted.

(2) RESPONDENT filed a writ petition in the High Court of Madras seeking a direction to the petitioner to apply the rule of reservation to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in respect of those seats which are set apart for all India pool in the M.B.B.S. or B.D.S. list. He had applied specifically in the category of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe for the All India Pre-medical Entrance Examination, 1999. However, when the results were published, he found that no separate list had been published in respect of that category. He contended that there is a constitutional obligation to provide a special reservation to the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes in the all India quota as otherwise, it would be violation of Article 15(4) of the Constitution of India. He sought for a direction to apply the rule of reservation.

(3) A learned single judge of the High Court held that the seats that are made available from various states are normally subject to the rule of reservation and the 15% of the seats allowed to the all India quota would, in the ordinary circumstances, have been reserved for the scheduled caste and schedule tribe candidates but for the directions of this Court under a scheme. He also noticed that there is no specific order of this Court not to apply the reservation rule to all India quota which is provided only to overcome the difficulty of residential requirement and, therefore, these seats must also provide for reservation on the ground of social and economic backwardness in terms of Article 15(4) and the directives principles of state policy. Thus, he allowed the writ petition directing to set apart and reserve seats for the socially and educationally backward classes as per the policy of the government making it clear that out of the 15% of the seats allocated, there should be reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

(4) AGAINST that order a writ appeal was preferred by the petitioner herein with an application seeking interim order for stay of the judgment of the learned single judge. A limited interim order was granted to the effect that if the 15% reservation is notionally implemented and the first respondent is found eligible to get admission under that quota, he should be given admission. It is against this order this special leave petition is filed.

(5) CONSIDERING the nature of the matter and the issues involved in the case, the learned counsel on both sides agreed that we should transfer the writ appeal that had been filed and dispose of the same on merits instead of merely considering the appeal against the interim order made on the interlocutory application. Hence, we proceed to transfer under Article 139-A the writ appeal (filed in the High Court) to this Court and dispose of the same by this order.

(6) IN Dr. Dinesh Kumar & Ors. (II) v. Motilal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad & Ors. [JT 1986 (2) SC 97], the question of 15% of-the total seats being made available for admission to M.B.B.S. or B.D.S. course without taking into account any reservation made by the state government was considered in the following manner:

"FIRSTLY, it was contended that the suggestion that 15 per cent of the total seats available for admission to M.B.B.S./B.D.S. course without taking into account any reservations which may be made by the state government, would tend to produce inequality of opportunity for admission to students in different states since the percentage of reservations varied from state to state and secondly, it was urged that the proposal of the Government of India that valid reservations should not exceed 50 per cent of the total number of seats available for admission, will reduce the opportunities which were at present available to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes as a result of reservations exceeding 50 per cent of the total