IMPORTANT POINT
Admission to Medical Colleges – Merely because seats are lying vacant, is not a ground to grant extension of time and grant further opportunity to fill up vacant seats – Process of admission and that too in medical education cannot be endless – It must end at a particular point of time.

ORDER :

M.R. SHAH, J.

1. As common question of law and facts arise in this group of writ petitions/special leave petitions, they are being disposed of by this common order.

2. For the sake of convenience, Writ Petition (C) No.409 of 2022 Dr. Astha Goel and Ors. Vs. The Medical Counselling Committee & Ors. is treated as the lead matter. By way of this writ petition being Writ Petition No. 409 of 2022 under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, the seven petitioners have prayed for the following reliefs:-

“a) Issue an Appropriate Writ, Order or Direction, in the nature of a Writ of Mandamus, under Article 32 of the Constitution to direct Respondent No. 1 to provide the exact number of vacant seats after the conduct of stray vacancy round of AIQ;

b) Issue an Appropriate Writ, Order or Direction, in the nature of a Writ of Mandamus, under Article 32 of the Constitution to direct Respondent No. 1 to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to participate for the vacant seats which are available after the conduct of stray vacancy round of AIQ;

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3. In Writ Petition (C) No. 393 of 2022, one additional prayer is made to issue an appropriate writ, direction or order directing the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 – The Medical Consulting Committee and the Union of India to revert the Medical P.G. seats remaining vacant after the AIQ stray vacancy round as regards the admissions conducted pursuant to NEET-PG-2021 examination to the State Quotas, for being allotted through State Mop-Up Rounds.

4. The petitioners of Special Leave Petition (C) No. 10395 of 2022 and Special Leave Petition (C) No. 10539 of 2022 approached the respective High Courts for the very reliefs, which are now sought in the aforesaid writ petitions, namely directing the respondents to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling so as to allow them to participate for the vacant seats, which are available after the conduct of stray vacancy round of AIQ. By the impugned orders, the respective High Courts have dismissed the writ petitions, hence the original writ petitioners have preferred the present special leave petitions.

5. The dispute is with respect to the admissions for NEET-PG-2021. Around 40,000 seats were available for NEET-PG examination, which included the clinical as well as non-clinical seats. 92,000 candidates/doctors were initially eligible for examination for the said seats. However, subsequently, the percentage was lowered by communication dated 12.05.2022 and another 25,000 candidates became eligible.

5.1 The NEET-PG examination was conducted on 11.09.2021. The result was declared on 28.09.2021. As per the earlier counselling scheme, there were two rounds of counselling for All India Seats as well as State Quotas seats respectively. However, as per the modified counselling scheme, counselling is to be carried in four rounds and no seats were to be reverted to States. These four rounds were AIQ Round 1, AIQ Round 2, AIQ Mop-up Round and AIQ Stray Vacancy Round.

5.2 That for NEET-PG-2021, Round 1 was held on 12.01.2022, Round 2 was held on 05.02.2022, Mop-Up Round was held on 14.04.2022 and final Stray Round started on 28.04.2022 and ended on 07.05.2022. At the end of the four rounds of counselling, each for All India Quota and State Quotas (in all eight rounds of counselling) and thereafter one another round of counselling was conducted, and still approximately 1456 seats remain vacant.

5.3 The respective petitioners, who earlier participated in all the counsellings and could not get the admissions have now approached this Court by way of present writ petitions/special leave petitions praying for Special Stray Round of counselling with respect to the remaining 1456 seats remained vacant and to allow them to participate for the vacant seats, which are available after the conduct of the Stray vacancy round of AIQ.

6. Ms. Rachna Shrivastava, learned Senior Advocate has appeared on behalf of the writ petitioners of Writ Petition (C) No. 4