(Per : HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE AKIL KURESHI)

PREAMBLE

1. In this group of petitions, though grievances raised in all petitions are not identical, they all pertain to the procedure for admissions to Medical and Paramedical Professional Courses for the academic year 2009-2010. These admissions are governed by Gujarat Professional Medical Educational Colleges (Regulation of Admission and Payment of Fees) Rules, 2009(here-in-after referred to as the Admission Rules of 2009). Since different facets of the Admission Rules of 2009 are involved in all the petitions and in some of the petitions some of the Rules are also under challenge, we find it convenient to dispose of all the petitions by a common judgment.

FACTUAL ASPECTS AND CONTENTIONS OF THE COUNSEL

2. In Special Civil Application No.5599/2009, the petitioners have questioned the policy of the State Government to permit the students who have passed 12th standard in Science Stream in previous years also to compete for the Medical and Paramedical seats admissions to which is being granted in the current year i.e. academic year 2009-2010. The petitioners have all passed the 12th standard examination in the academic year 2008-2009 in Gujarat Board. They have applied for admissions to various Medical and Paramedical courses on the basis of their performance in the qualifying examination as well as in the Common Entrance Test held by the respondents in the year 2009. They contend that admissions being granted for such courses in the academic year 2009-2010 should be confined exclusively for those students who have passed HSC examination in the academic year 2008-2009.

2.1 Rule 5 of the Admission Rules of 2009 provides for eligibility for admission. Rule 5(1)(B) of the Admission Rules of 2009, in particular, provides that for admission a candidate must have appeared in the Gujarat Common Entrance Test (here-in-after referred to as GUJCET )conducted in the current academic year. Sub-rule(5) of Rule 5 further provides that a candidate who has secured admission under these Rules in any year shall not be eligible for further admission to any course until the period within which he might have completed the course in which he has secured admission.

In the nutshell, therefore, under the the Admission Rules of 2009, the students who have passed the HSC examination in earlier academic years, can also apply for admissions to Medical and Paramedical courses provided i) they appear in the GUJCET for the current academic year and ii) such candidate if he has already taken admission in any course, he is not eligible to apply again till he completes the course. Apparently similar provisions were also made in Admission Rules of 2008.

2.2 Learned advocate Shri D.C. Dave for the petitioners vehemently contended that this policy of the State Government is illegal and unlawful and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. He pointed out that in the Admission Rules of 2009, merit list is prepared by giving 60% weightage to the marks obtained by a student in HSC examination and 40% weightage to the performance in GUJCET examination of the current year. His main contention therefore, was that by preparing a common merit list for students who have passed the HSC examinations in different academic years would amount to treating unequals as equals. In other words, he contended that the procedure evolved by the respondents treated results of HSC examinations of different years equally. Results of different years would vary and thus the respondents failed to provide for a common yardstick for judging the students. He submitted that since year 1984, admission rules for such courses permitted the students only of that particular academic year to apply in medical seats and such a rule was upheld by this Court in case of Jayesh A. Joshipura v. State of Gujarat and others reported in 1984(2)GLR 761, wherein Learned Single Judge was pleased to uphold the said policy of limiting the admission to MBBS course only