Equity cannot override statute, and the constitutional power of the writ court under Article 226 of the Constitution does not enable it to issue any direction in contradiction to the mandatory statutory regulations.

"CR"

Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, J.

1. All these writ petitions are filed by students admitted by different self financing Medical Colleges for the MBBS Course for the year 2007-08. WP(C).34270/2009 is filed by five students of Jubilee Medical Mission College and Research Institute. WP (C).34278/2009 is filed by fifteen students of Amala Institute of Medical Sciences. WP (C).34285/2009 is filed by eight students of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College and WP(C).34343/2009 is filed by twenty-four students of Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre. WP(C).Nos.13810 and 13819 of 2010 are filed by two among the petitioners in WP(C).34278/2009(Malankara) on a plea that they have a further ground peculiar to the facts of the individual claims. On similar grounds, WP (C).Nos.13817 and 21534 of 2010 are filed by the 4th and 13th petitioners respectively in WP(C).34343/2009(Pushpagiri) and WP(C). Nos.13818/2010 is filed by the 5th petitioner in WP(C).34285/2009(Malankara). We record the submission that the 5th petitioner in WP(C). 34278/09 has left the College, having obtained a transfer certificate. 2.WP(C).34389/2009 is filed by nine students and WP (C).34941/2009 is filed by eighteen students of M.E.S.Medical College.

3. In so far as the self financing education sector in Kerala is concerned, Act 19 of 2006 [the Kerala Professional Colleges or Institutions(Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-Exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence in Professional Education) Act, 2006] provides for the constitution of an Admission Supervisory Committee and a Fee Regulatory Committee. (Sections 4 and 6).

4. The M.E.S.Medical College has entered into an agreement with the Government. That is Ext.P2 in WP(C). 34389/2009. Clauses 6 and 7 thereof regulate the modalities for admission. It is pointed out that the said agreement stands approved by the Admission Supervisory Committee. Apart from that, the learned counsel for the M.E.S.Medical College also points out that his client is a minority institution and would be governed by the provisions of the decision of the Apex Court in P.A.Inamdar v. State of Maharashtra, (2005) 6 SCC 537. He made particular reference to paragraph 137 of that judgment, at page 604 of that reported version, to say that the required bench mark is only that the admission procedure adopted by a private institution or group of institutions ought to be one fulfilling the test of being fair, transparent and non-exploitative.

5. With the aforesaid, we proceed to note that the challenge in these writ petitions is against the decision of the Medical Council of India directing that the writ petitioners be discharged on the ground that they do not satisfy the eligibility conditions and selection conditions prescribed by Regulations 5(2) and 5(5)(ii) of the MCI(Graduate Medical Education) Regulations, 1997, hereinafter referred to as the "MCI Regulations", which, among other things, enjoin that in States having more than one university/board/examining body conducting the qualifying examination(or where there is more than one medical college under the administrative control of one authority), a competitive entrance examination should be held so as to achieve a uniform evaluation and in case of admission on the basis of competitive entrance examination in terms of that clause, a candidate must have passed in the subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English individually and must have obtained a minimum of 50% of marks taken together in Physics, Chemistry and Biology at the qualifying examination and in addition, must have come in the merit list prepared as a result of such competitive entrance examination by securing not less than 50% marks in Physics, Chemistry and Biology taken together in the competitive examination. To put it pithily, a competitive examination should be held to achieve a uniform evaluation and the candidate sho