JUDGMENT :

M.R. SHAH, J.

Leave & permission granted in the respective special leave petitions.

2. After considering the judgment rendered by a three Judge Bench of this Court in the case of State of U.P. v. Dinesh Singh Chauhan., (2016) 9 SCC 749, another three Judge Bench, pursuant to order dated 13.4.2018 in the case of T.N. Medical Officers Association v. Union of India, (2018) 17 SCC 478, has referred the present batch of cases to a larger Bench.

2.1 In the case of Dinesh Singh Chauhan (supra), a three Judge Bench construed the provisions of Regulations 9(IV) and 9(VII) of the MCI Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, as amended on 15.2.2012 (hereinafter referred to as the “MCI Regulations 2000”). In the case of Dinesh Singh Chauhan (supra), while considering the aforesaid Regulations, this Court held that the aforesaid Regulations do not provide for any reservation for in-service government doctors in PG degree courses, and therefore, the State Government order providing the reservation for PG degree courses for in-service government doctors is held to be illegal.

2.2 The present batch of cases came up for hearing before another Bench of three Judges. The Bench was of the opinion that the present batch of cases require consideration by a larger Bench and that is how the present batch of cases are referred to a larger Bench. On the basis of the submissions made, the following reasons were mentioned:

“(i) The decision in Dinesh Singh Chauhan has not considered the entries in the legislative lists of the Seventh Schedule, more particularly Entry 66 of the Union List and Entry 25 of the Concurrent List;

(ii) The main contention of the petitioners is that while coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education falls within the exclusive domain of the Union (Entry 66 List I), medical education is a subject in the Concurrent List (Entry 25 List III). Though, Entry 25 of List III is subject to Entry 66 of List I, the State is not denuded of its power to legislate on the manner and method of making admissions to postgraduate medical courses;

(iii) The contentions which have been raised in the present batch of petitions were not addressed before this Court in Dinesh Singh Chauhan;

(iv) The judgment in Dinesh Singh Chauhan does not consider three decisions of the Constitution Bench in R. Chitralekha v. State of Mysore (1964) 6 SCR 368 : AIR 1964 SC 1823, Chitra Ghosh v. Union of India (1969) 2 SCC 228 and Modern Dental College & Research Centre v. State of M.P. (2016) 8 SCC 353; and

(v) There are decisions rendered by Benches of an equal strength as in Dinesh Singh Chauhan.”

2.3 Now so far as Civil Appeals arising out of the Special Leave Petitions(C) Nos.26448-26449 of 2019 are concerned, they arise out of the impugned judgment and order dated 01/10/2019 in MAT Nos. 1245 and 1267 of 2019 passed by the High Court at Calcutta, by which the Division Bench of the High Court has dismissed the batch of appeals confirming the order passed by the learned Single Judge holding that the State has no authority to reserve 40% seats for the in-service doctors and 60% seats for open category doctors.

2.4 In Writ Petition (Civil) No. 196 of 2018 filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners–Tamil Nadu Medical officers’ Association and others, for and on behalf of the in-service doctors in the State of Tamil Nadu have prayed for the following reliefs:

(a) declare by issuance of a writ of mandamus or any other suitable writ/order/direction that Regulation 9 of the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000 (more particularly, Regulation 9(IV) and 9(VII), does not take away the power of the States under Entry 25, List III to provide for a separate source of entry for in-service candidates seeking admission to Degree courses;

(b) Alternatively, if Regulation 9 of the Post Graduate Med