Adherence to the regulations of the Medical Council of India and the principle of merit-based admissions are mandatory requirements in the context of admissions to medical courses.

JUDGMENT

Tarlok Singh Chauhan, J. - The petitioners could not participate in the 1st round of counselling for admission to MD/MS/Post Graduate Diploma Courses 2020-2021. Thereafter, they applied for consideration of their candidature in the 2nd round of counselling, which according to them, is being considered wrongly and illegally, after giving undue advantage to non-meritorious candidates, who have applied for 1st round of counselling, over and above them, solely on the basis that they did not apply in the 1st round of counselling and aggrieved thereby, they have filed the instant petition for grant of following substantive reliefs:-

"i. To quash and set aside the stipulation "Hence, appearance in the 1st round of Centralized Counselling is mandatory for consideration of candidature for subsequent rounds of counselling" contained in condition No. 7.1 of the NEET PG Prospectus, 2020 (Annexure P-4).

ii. To quash and set aside the stipulation stating "During the 2 nd round of Centralized Counselling and subsequent rounds/MOP up round of counseling, seats shall be allotted from 1st State merit. After exhaustion of 1st merit completely, 2nd merit will be considered for allotment of seats (if seats available)" contained in condition No. 7.5 of the NEET PG Prospectus, 2020 annexed vide Annexure P-4.

Iii. That the respondents may be directed to allot seats in second round of counselling and subsequent rounds of counselling strictly as per merit of the eligible candidates i.e. as per academic merit of the candidates determined on the basis of All India NEET Examination."

2. The petitioners appeared in the Combined All India Entrance Test NEET, 2020, wherein they applied in General Category and after having qualified found the place in the merit list.

3. The Scheme of Online 50% All India Quota PG counselling was issued, which provided for the mechanism which needs to be adopted during the counselling process.

4. This Scheme has been formulated in compliance to the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. In terms thereof, 50% of the seats are required to be filled-up by All India counselling and the remaining 50% seats are to be filled up by the State Government by conducting the counselling for the State seats as well as seats of Private Medical Colleges.

5. The Court herein is concerned with the seats for private medical colleges. The procedure for filling whereof is laid down in clauses 7.1 and 7.5 of the prospectus issued by the respondents, which read as under:-

"7.1. The Centralized Counselling shall be held on dates mentioned in the Prospectus as per the time schedule. On the day of counselling, the allotment of available seats to the eligible candidates shall be made in order of merit on the basis of General combined merit drawn by the Principal Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla cum-Member Secretary Counselling Committee on the basis of ranking /marks of NEET- PG-2020 of those candidates who have applied on the prescribed application form within stipulated date as mentioned in the prospectus for admission to PG(MD/MS) degree courses to the Principal Indira Gandhi Medical College & Hospital Shimla-cum Member Secretary Counselling Committee . All the eligible candidates or their authorized representatives will have to bring their original documents alongwith required documents at the time of Centralized Counselling. NO SEPARATE COMMMUNICATION WILL BE ISSUED TO THE CANDIDATES FOR ATTENDING THE CENTRALIZED COUNSELLIING. The candidate/ authorized person do not reporting for Counselling as per schedule will forfeit their claim for admission without any further notice. No further opportunity will be given. Hence, appearance in the 1st round of Centralized Counselling is mandatory for consideration of candidature for subsequent rounds of Counselling. Joining time is as per schedule prescribed in the prospectus. The selected candidates will be required to join in the prescribed joining time after completing all codal formalities faili