IMPORTANT POINT
Law does not assist the non-vigilant.

JUDGMENT

Dipak Misra, J.

The appellants invoked the jurisdiction of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench, Lucknow in Writ Petition No. 21038 of 2016 for issue a writ of mandamus commanding the opposite parties, namely, State of Uttar Pradesh, King George’s Medical University, Coordinator, U.P. Post Graduate Medical Entrance Examination, 2016 (UPPGMEE, 2016) and Medical Council of India (MCI) to complete the process of counselling by holding the second, third and mop-up round of counselling as prescribed in the Information Brochure issued for the UPPGMEE, 2016 and to ensure that no seats in any of the courses advertised in the Information Brochure are allowed to go vacant for the academic year 2016-2017.

2. The facts which are requisite to be stated are that the appellants had appeared in the written test of UPPGMEE-2016 and after being declared successful, they participated in the first round of counselling which was held from 04.04.2016 to 08.04.2016. The candidates who got selected in the said counselling joined their respective seats allotted to them. The case of the appellants before the High Court was that as per the Information Brochure, minimum three round of counsellings are to be held and in case sufficient number of seats are left unallotted at the end of third round of counselling, then a mop-up round of allotment is required to be organized on the notified date after giving due publicity by the Director General of Medical Education and Training, U.P. to ensure that there is no loss of PG seats in the academic year 2016-2017. It was urged before the High Court that terms and conditions for participating in the mop-up round of counselling are that (i) candidates who are admitted/allotted but not joined/resigned in any seat in Uttar Pradesh will not be eligible for participation; (ii) any candidate who had taken admission in any PG course in any medical college in India also will not be eligible for participation; (iii) the candidate must present himself/herself with all original documents, and (iv) no request for re-allotment of seats already allotted in the first and second round will be entertained.

3. It was the stand of the appellants before the High Court that it is obligatory on the part of the respondents to give effect to the postulates contained in the Information Brochure and hence, the authorities were under obligation to hold the second and third round of counselling as well as the mop-up round of counselling, but they had failed to do so by their erroneous understanding of the judgment and order dated 16.08.2016 in the case of State of Uttar Pradesh and others v. Dinesh Singh Chauhan, (2016) 9 SCC 749. It was further contended that there was infringement of valuable rights of writ petitioners as they had been denied admission to the institution of their choice in accordance with merit. It was canvassed with vigour that such an unacceptable situation had occurred, for despite the seats being lying vacant in several medical colleges no steps were being taken to fill them up. Citing an example, it was put forth that for the academic session 2013-2014 the counselling was done in the month of August and the admissions were given to the meritorious candidates and, therefore, it was necessary to issue appropriate directions to fill up the unfilled seats.

4. The stand of the appellants before the High Court was resisted by the respondent No. 2 therein – Director General of Medical Education and Training, Uttar Pradesh, contending, inter alia, that seats had remained vacant because of the directions of the Supreme Court in Mridul Dhar (Minor) and another v. Union of India and others, (2005) 2 SCC 65 wherein stress was laid for adherence to the time schedule and the categorical command that there should not be midstream admissions. It was further held that carrying forward unfilled seats of one academic year to another academic year was not permissible.

Reliance was also placed on the authority