IMPORTANT POINT
Selection criteria cannot be changed midway.

JUDGMENT

ALTAMAS KABIR, J.

1. Six Special Leave Petitions, being SLP(C)No.15974/2011, SLP(C)No.16075/2011, SLP(C)No. 16346/2011, SLP(C)Nos.16228-30/2011, have been taken up together for hearing, as they involve common questions of fact and law relating to the eligibility of the Special Leave Petitioners, who are members of the Haryana Civil Medical Services, to be admitted to the Post-Graduate Courses conducted by the Pt. B.D. Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, Respondent No.2 herein, against the reserved quota for such candidates.

2. Leave granted.

3. Before proceeding further, I.A.Nos.4 and 5 of 2011, filed by Dr. Rajeev Kumar and 10 others in SLP(C)No.15974 of 2011, for impleadment in these proceedings as respondents, are allowed.

4. For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to the facts from SLP(C)No.15974/2011, filed by Dr. Parmender Kumar and others. As indicated hereinabove, the Appellants in all these appeals are candidates for admission to the Post-Graduate Courses conducted by the Respondent No.2 University against the Haryana Civil Medical Services (HCMS) reserved quota. As provided for by the prospectus dated 6th January, 2011, a common entrance examination was held for candidates who applied for admissions against seats reserved for the HCMS quota, as also seats under open merit category. The prospectus sets out the total number of seats in each course and the seats earmarked for the HCMS reserved category and also in respect of open merit. According to the prospectus, seats available for the Post-Graduate Course in the different disciplines indicate a total number of 145 seats available, of which 73 seats were reserved for the All India quota, 29 seats were reserved for the HCMS reserved quota and 43 seats were reserved for the open merit category. As per the prospectus, the last date of receipt of application was 24th January, 2011 within 5 p.m. The common entrance examination was held as per schedule on 2nd March, 2011 and results were declared on 3rd March, 2011. Counselling was scheduled for 6th April, 2011 and the academic session was due to commence on 10th May, 2011.

5. The eligibility criteria laid down in the prospectus for candidates appearing in the entrance examination in respect of the HCMS reserved quota was included in Clause 5 of the prospectus, which reads as follows :

"5. HCMS doctors sponsored by the State Govt. will be eligible to appear in the entrance examination against the reserved seats for this category, provided they submit the application through their employer or submit their applications for getting NOCs to the department/State Government well in time and the Department/State Govt. will ensure that the NOCs where ever eligible, are issued before the date of 1st Counselling i.e. 06.04.2011."

6. What is of importance is the method of selection and admission which was made a part of the prospectus, wherein, in Clause 6 relating to determination of merit, in Sub-Clause (iii), it was indicated as follows :

"6.(iii) The conditions for NOCs fixed by the Govt. of Haryana vide letter No.2/123/05/I-HB-I dated 5.12.2008 for HCMS doctors who want to join PG-courses are given at Annexure-D. (However, latest Govt. instructions issued from time to time will be followed)."

7. For, as per the aforesaid Sub-Clause, HCMS doctors who wanted to join the PG-courses against the HCMS reserved quota, required NOC in terms of Government of Haryana instructions dated 5th December, 2008. As per the said instructions, one of the eligibility conditions was contained in Clause 3, which is extracted herein below :

"3. The basic condition for eligibility is three years regular service with successful completion of probation period out of which two years service is essential in rural areas for both reserved and open seats in the case of HCMS doctors. However, the condition of rural service will not be applicable in the case of a member of the HMES."

8. The Appellants were allowed to participate in the se