JUDGMENT

Satish Chandra Sharma, CJ. - The Petitioner before this Court has filed the present petition under Article 226 read with Article 227 of the Constitution of India, for quashment of Regulation 9(3) of the Postgraduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2018 (as amended on 05.04.2018) to the extent that it provides for minimum marks of 50th percentile as a mandatory requirement for admission to postgraduate courses, on the ground that the said requirement is arbitrary, unjustified and contrary to Article 14, Article 19 (1)(g) and Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

2. The facts of the case reveal that the petition has been filed as a Public Interest Litigation by three doctors seeking admission into postgraduate courses. The Petitioner No. 1 obtained his MBBS Degree in the year 2018 and appeared in the NEET PG Entrance Test on 05.01.2020. He secured 180 marks in the NEET PG Entrance Test, and is working at GB Pant Hospital. The Petitioner No. 2 obtained his MBBS Degree in June 2018 and, thereafter, appeared in the NEET PG Entrance Test, scoring 108 marks. Similarly, the Petitioner No. 3 also appeared in the NEET PG Entrance Test and scored 160 marks. He is also working at GB Pant Hospital.

3. The Petitioners' contention is that the Medical Council of India (MCI) introduced an All-India Entrance Examination called as National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS and postgraduate courses by amending the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations on 21.12.2010. The Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations were again amended on 15.02.2012, and the percentile system was introduced which provided that in order to obtain admission to a postgraduate course in an academic year, a student must obtain minimum marks at 50th Percentile in the NEET.

4. The Petitioners' further contention is that the amending Regulation was challenged before the Hon'ble Supreme Court by some institutions and, in the case of Christian Medical College , Vellore and Others v. Union of India and Others , (2014) 2 SCC 305 , the Regulations were held to be ultra vires. It has further been submitted that again in the case of Medical Council of India v. Christian Medical College, Vellore and Others , (2016) 4 SCC 342 , the Hon'ble Supreme Court rendered a decision holding that the judgment delivered in Christian Medical College , Vellore (supra) needed to be reviewed and that the process of admissions based on All-India Examination for common merit list for admission to medical colleges was in order.

5. The Petitioners further stated that in the year 2016, the Indian MEDICAL COUNCIL ACT , 1956 was amended by Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Act, 2016, and the amending Act inserted Section 10D and Section 33(mb) into the Indian MEDICAL COUNCIL ACT , 1956. The statutory provisions brought into force by way of amendment, provided for a uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions in respect of under-graduate courses as well as postgraduate courses to be held by the designated authority.

6. The Petitioners have further brought to the notice of this Court that keeping in view the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Act, 2016, an all-India examination took place for the academic year 2017-18, and on 05.04.2018, the Medical Council of India, with the previous sanction of the Central Government, amended the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, vide notification No. MCI-18(1)/ 2018-Med./100818. The amended Regulation 9(3), which came into force on 05.04.2018, reads as under:

"(3) To be eligible for admission to Postgraduate Course for an academic year, it shall be necessary for a candidate to obtain minimum of marks at 50th percentile in the 'National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate courses' held for the said academic year. However, in respect of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, the minimum marks shall be at 40th percentile. In re