IMPORTANT POINT
Admission into Postgraduate Course in Dental Sciences – Undue sympathy would lead to perpetuating illegality and giving premium to students who got admissions illegally.

JUDGMENT :

M.R. Shah, J.

1. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned common judgment and order dated 20.08.2018 passed by the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur in Writ Petition No. 1649/2018 and other allied writ petitions, by which the High Court has allowed the said writ petitions preferred by the respondents – students and has quashed and set aside the communication dated 6.6.2018 of the State of Chhattisgarh annulling/cancelling the admissions of the respective respondents – original writ petitioners in the Postgraduate Dental Course, the Dental Council of India has preferred the present appeals.

2. The facts leading to the present appeals in a nutshell are as under:

The National Board of Examination conducted NEET MDS 2018 for admission in various Postgraduate Course in Dental Sciences. The result of the NEET MDS 2018 was published on 31.01.2018. A merit list was prepared for the State of Chhattisgarh. The admissions in the Postgraduate Course in Dental Sciences were to be made through counselling by the State Government. The admission process was required to be completed on or before 31.05.2018 before 4:30 p.m.

2.1 As per the procedure and the relevant rules and regulations, namely, Chhattisgarh Dental Medicine Postgraduate Admission Rules, 2017 and the provisions of the Dentists Act, 1948 and MDS Course Regulations, 2017, the particulars of the seats were required to be intimated to the State Government and Directorate of Medical Education, Raipur, Chhattisgarh and as observed hereinabove the admissions were to be given on merits on the basis of the counselling made by the State Government. As per the procedure, after the first round of counselling, there shall be second round of counselling and thereafter the mop up round of counselling. In the present case, the dispute is with respect to three Dental Colleges, namely, New Horizon Dental College Research Institute, Bilaspur (for short, ‘New Horizon College’), Maitri College of Dentistry and Research (for short, ‘Maitri College’), Anjora Durg and Rungta College of Dental Sciences and Research, Bhilai (for short, ‘Rungta College’). New Horizon College intimated seven seats to be included in the mop up round, Maitri College intimated nine seats to be included in the mop up round and Rungta College intimated fifteen seats to be included in the mop up round.

2.2 The Directorate of Medical Education notified the vacant seats including the vacant seats in the aforesaid three colleges on 29.05.2018 to be filled up in mop up round of counselling on the basis of intimation provided by the private colleges including the above three colleges. The vacant seats of the above three colleges were notified in the notice by the Directorate of Medical Education.

2.3 74 candidates appeared for mop up round of counselling before the Directorate on 30.05.2018 including the original writ petitioners, seven in numbers. Out of 74 candidates, 43 candidates were allotted seats. In the mop up round after counselling, New Horizon College was allotted seven seats against seven vacant seats available in the college. Maitri College was allotted nine students against nine vacant seats available in the college and Rungta College was allotted thirteen students against fifteen seats available in the college and two seats remained vacant.

At this stage, it is required to be noted that total number of vacant seats for all five colleges were 46 and out of 46, 43 seats were allotted to students in various colleges including the above three colleges. Out of allotment of 43 seats, 35 candidates joined and 8 seats remained vacant due to non-joining. Thus, only three seats remained unallotted after mop up round of counselling. One seat remained vacant in Chhattisgarh Dental College and two seats remained vacant in Rungta College. The Directorate, on receiving the information of the above vacant seats from the colleges, immediately sent list of 30 students for filling three vacant seats in the ratio of 1: