The main legal principle established was that the M.C.I. regulations on admission criteria were mandatory and binding on the State Government, and the State could not unilaterally change the criteria after the admission process.

Navaniti Prasad Singh, J.

This batch of Intra-Court appeals under Clause-10 of the Letters Patent of the Patna High Court arises from C.W.J.C. No.14652 of 2014 and analogous cases, which was disposed of by judgment and order dated 23.09.2014. These appeals, as they involved substantial questions of law of general importance, were heard at length, after notice to all the parties and, with their consent, are being disposed of at this stage itself.

2. These appeals are by the Medical Council of India (hereinafter in short as 'M.C.I.') constituted under the Medical Council of India Act, 1956. The substantial question is, whether the State Government has the power and can reduce the minimum eligibility marks for reserved category candidates even below what has been prescribed by the M.C.I., as per the M.C.I. regulations of the year 1997 in respect to admission to M.B.B.S./B.D.S. courses. The further question, which would be involved, is whether in exercise of powers under Section-6 of the Bihar Reservation (In Admission in Educational Institutions) Act, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Bihar Reservation In Admission Act, 2003') any order could at all be passed, much less as directed by the learned Single Judge, lowering the eligibility marks for reserved candidates to enable the State to fill up the seats reserved for them when they failed to qualify.

Factual Matrix

3. The writ petitioners/respondents were students belonging to either to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Class, Extremely Backward Class or Girl in the Backward Class categories. They intended to seek admission in Medical Colleges of the State or Private Medical Colleges in the State of Bihar for admission to M.B.B.S./B.D.S. professional courses. There were altogether 782 seats available for all categories of students taken together. They were to be filled up through Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination, 2014 (hereinafter in short as 'BCECE').

4. The State Government enacted the Bihar Reservation In Admission Act, 2003, which, inter alia, provided that in all educational institutions, which are either fully or partially aided by the State Government, 50% of the seats are to be filled up and reserved for the reserved category and the proportions of each reserved category is prescribed as under:

“2. Regulation of Reservation of admission-

(1) ....

(2) The vacancies for different categories of reserved candidates from amongst the 50% reserved category, subject to other provisions of this Act shall be as follows:-

5. For conducting common entrance examination, the State Government constituted BCECE Board and entrusted it with the responsibility of conducting such examinations including that for admission to M.B.B.S./B.D.S. courses in the State.

6. For BCECE-2014, the said Board issued a prospectus for the year 2014 which clearly specified the total number of vacancies. In the prospectus, the nature of examination and method of examination were given. Clause 5 thereof, specifies reservation which was as per the Bihar Reservation In Admission Act, 2003, in addition to the reservation, as noted above. Clause 5.7 provided vertical reservation of 3% for physically challenged persons. Clause 9.7 provided two stage examinations. Clause 14.4, inter alia, provided for admission through counselling after examination. The regulations of the MCI would be applicable wherein the qualifying marks are stipulated. So far as general category candidates are concerned, the minimum qualifying marks would be 50%, for the reserved category it would be minimum 40% and for physically challenged persons it would be 45%.

7. As stated above, for the total number of seats available, large nu