The court affirmed the Central Council's authority to establish educational standards, finding the regulations limiting examination attempts reasonable and not arbitrary.

ORDER

1. In this group of petitions, the petitioners have challenged the vires of Regulations 6(l)(c), 6(2)(c) and 6(4)(d) of the Indian Medicine Central Council (Minimum Standards of Education in Indian Medicine) Amendment Regulations, 2016 (hereinafter to be referred to as the said Regulations). The petitioners have also prayed for consequential directions for allowing them to appear in the examination which was to be held shortly after the petitions were filed.

2. The facts may be noted from Writ Petition No.2638/2021 in the case of Rajesh Choudahry. The petitioner was admitted in Mahatama Jyotiba Fule Ayurved Maha Vidhyalaya, Chomu, District Jaipur in the academic year 2017 in the Aurved Medicine course after passing his senior higher secondary Examination and on the basis of pre-ayurvedic test conducted by the State of Rajasthan for such purpose. He appeared in the examinations of first and second professionals i.e. Academic Year 2017. He could not clear the said examinations in four chances. Based on Regulation No.6(4)(d) of the said Regulations, he was debarred from appearing in further examinations, upon which he filed this petition in which, as noted, he has challenged the vires of regulations concerned.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners have vehemently argued before us that these regulations are unreasonable and arbitrary and are reconcilable with the provisions contained in the regulations itself permitting total nine years duration for completing the entire course. They have argued that earlier there was no such bifurcation in the regulations requiring the students to clear papers of each year within maximum number of years. They have therefore submitted that the regulations are unreasonable, arbitrary and thus violate Article 14 of the Constitution and need to be struck down.

4. The learned advocates also contended that the Ministry of Ayush, which is also an apex body governing the standards of homeopathy medicines, has not framed any such regulations for the said course. Our attention was also drawn to the regulations framed by the Medical Council of India for the purpose of medical education in which barring the first year examination no ceiling of number of attempts permissible to a student has been laid down. Reliance was placed on the decision of the Supreme Court in case of Kuldeep Singh and Others Vs. Unni & Another [2007 (2) SCC 365] to contend that a regulation, which is unreasonable or arbitrary, should be set aside.

5. The Central Council of Indian Medicine respondent No.2 has filed a reply in which it is contended that the regulations were framed prescribing the minimum standards of education with the aim of producing graduates having profound knowledge of Ayurveda as well as knowledge of scientific advances in modern medicines. It is pointed out that Bombay High Court in a Writ Petition No.4720/2012 (Pawar Nitin Madhukar Vs. Dadasaheb Swaroop Sinh Naik and Others - decided on 03.12.2013) had asked the council to file an affidavit as to how a student despite failing in the first attempt endlessly goes on appearing in the subsequent examinations without any limit of chances. It was pursuant to this order passed by the Bombay High Court, the counsel took a decision to further amend the regulations providing limit of attempts to qualify in each examination. The decision was taken by the Executive Council. In short, the regulations of 2016 are valid.

6. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and having perused the documents on record, we find that the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 ('the Act' in short) was framed to provide for constitution of Central Council of Indian Medical and Maintenance of Central Register of Indian Medicine and matters connected therewith. The statement of objects and reasons for framing the said law provides that the question of establishing the statutory composite Central Council for Indian systems of medicine (Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani) and Homeopathic system of