CHENNAKESAV REDDI, J.

( 1 ) IN these cases, the petitioner are all students they have been successful at the Intermediate Examination and are aspirants for higher education - A Degree in Medicine and surgery. They have taken the Entrance Examination for the M. B. B. S. course in the Medical colleges in the state for the Academic year 1982-83.

( 2 ) THE Board of Examiners. In exercise of it discretion got the answer scrips mechanically valued by way of computers. The petitioners wrongly coded the Roll numbers on the answer scripts in breach of the instructions specifically given to the examinees in that behalf. The computer rejected their answer scripts they, therefore now seek a direction of the Director of Medical Education and Chairman Board of Examiners, Medical Entrance Examination hyderabad to have the answer scripts valued manually and allot seats, if they are eligible in the order of merit. They claim that the manual valuation has been arbitrarily denied by the chairman. Board of Examiners. Although they are legally entitled to for such valuation under R. 14 (b) of the rules for selection of candidates for admission to the 1st year M. B. B. S course in the Medical college in Andhra pradesh state hereinafter called "the Rules for admission to the Medical course". Therefore the question that requires determination in these cases relates to the scope and interpretation of R. 14 of the Rules of admission to the medical course R. 14 reads;-"14. Notification of Marks;- (a) The marks obtained by the candidates in the entrance test shall be notified on the notice boards of the respective medical colleges in the order of Roll numbers on the 15 th day after the notification of the results. (b) Manual Valuation:- If any candidate desires that his answer script should be valued manually he/she has to remit a fee of Rs. 400 under the head of account 080 Medical A. Allopathy (a) Tution and other fees for Medical Education and submit challan in original along with an application indicating Roll No. Etc. To the principal of the Medical colleges concerned within 40 days after the notification of the results Fees once paid shall not be refunded under any circumstances. The examination Board shall get the valuation done by one of the senior professors of the medical colleges who is not a member of Examination Board and candidates or their representatives shall have no right to be present at the time of manual valuation".

( 3 ) BEFORE proceeding on a critical examination of the scope of the Rule it is useful and indeed necessary to ascertain the social and moral context in which the Rule was Brought into existence the contextual approach involves treating the law-in-action from a broader base than as was in the normal circumstances. The selection of students for admission to the medical course has posed a problem of varying magnitude and complexity in the state. Therefore the state has to decide its own procedure for selecting the best students from among the eligible applicants the number of students seeking admission to the medical course is nearly 17 times more than the number of seats available in the medical colleges in the state Therefore there has been a search for the good and reliable method of selection. A vigorous search is made in this regard.

( 4 ) THE common practice for a long time in this state has been to use the marks obtained in the Intermediate Examination rigidly as the sole criterion of merit and the basis of selection for the M. B. B. S course but examination marks were notoriously found to be unreliable for measuring the merit of the applicants. Therefore a better selection method of reliability was thought of and an entrance examination is cndidered as a satisfactory technique of selection. For some time the examination papers were being corrected manually but the manual valuation was again distrusted as there were complaints that the valuation and appraisal were not objective. Public had lost confidence in manual

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