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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR
M.L. Bhat, J.
Rias Ahmad Shah - Appellant
Versus
State Of J&K & Ors. - Respondent
Writ Petition No. 136/1986
Decided On : 16 May, 1986
ADMISSION TO MEDICAL COLLEGES - SELECTION PROCEDURE - VALIDITY - RESERVATION FOR BACKWARD CLASSES - EXTENT - REASONABLENESS - FRAUD ON CONSTITUTION.
Fact of the Case:
Petitioner challenged the selection of respondents 8 to 12 for admission to the 1st year MBBS course in the two medical colleges of the State, alleging that the selection procedure was arbitrary and violative of his rights, that weightage should have been given to the marks obtained by him in the qualifying examination, that the method of interview was unsatisfactory, that the reservation of 50% for Actual Line of Control was bad, that selection of other candidates was unfair and that there were allegations against the members of the Selection Committee.
Finding of the Court:
The court held that the selection procedure prescribed by the Jammu and Kashmir Medical College (Selection of Candidates for Admission to 1st year MBBS Course) Procedure Order of 1983 was valid and reasonable, and that the State was competent to evolve its own method of selection which must be fair and reasonable. The court also held that the reservation of 50% for backward classes was valid, but that the extent of reservation should be reasonable and not excessive or arbitrary. The court found that the increase in the percentage of reservation for backward classes from 40% to 50% was unreasonable and arbitrary, and amounted to a fraud on the Constitution.
Issues: 1. Whether the selection procedure prescribed by the Jammu and Kashmir Medical College (Selection of Candidates for Admission to 1st year MBBS Course) Procedure Order of 1983 was valid and reasonable? 2. Whether weightage should have been given to the marks obtained by the petitioner in the qualifying examination? 3. Whether the method of interview was satisfactory? 4. Whether the reservation of 50% for Actual Line of Control was valid? 5. Whether the selection of other candidates was unfair? 6. Whether there were allegations against the members of the Selection Committee?
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The selection procedure prescribed by the Jammu and Kashmir Medical College (Selection of Candidates for Admission to 1st year MBBS Course) Procedure Order of 1983 was valid and reasonable, as it was held to be so by the Supreme Court in Javid Rasool Bhat v. State of Jammu and Kashmir (AIR 1984 SC 873). 2. Weightage need not be given to the marks obtained by a candidate in the qualifying examination, as the Supreme Court has held that the State is competent to evolve its own method of selection which must be fair and reasonable. 3. The method of interview was satisfactory, as it was held to be so by the Supreme Court in Javid Rasool Bhat v. State of Jammu and Kashmir (AIR 1984 SC 873). 4. The reservation of 50% for Actual Line of Control was valid, as it was held to be so by the Supreme Court in Gurmeet Singh’s case. 5. The selection of other candidates was not unfair, as the court found no evidence to support the petitioner’s allegations. 6. There were no allegations against the members of the Selection Committee that were substantiated by the court.
Final Decision: The court allowed the writ petition to the extent that it directed the State Government to admit 12 students to the open merit category in the rate of 8% i.e. 12 students to the 1st year MBBS Course for the session 1985-86. The court also directed the State Government to seek approval of the Medical Council of India for admitting the 12 students.
2. It appears that an advertisement notice was issued on 26-6-1985 for admission to the M.B.B.S. course in the Govt. Medical Colleges Srinagar and Jammu for the academic year 1985-86. The eligibility for selection was that a candidate must have passed Higher Secondary Part II/TDC, Part I of the J. & K. Board of School Education in the concerned subjects and candidates with 50% marks would be eligible to apply for consideration and selection would be made on the basis of written entrance test and viva voce test which were to be held on different dates. Written test would carry 85 points and viva voce 15 points. The points allocated to viva voce were sub-divided and aptitude would carry 8 points, General Knowledge and General Intelligence would carry 7 points. From open category 50% seats would be filled up and from reserve category 50% seats would be filled up which would mean that the seats were to be distributed equally between open merit category and reserve category. Petitioner-is said to have secured 439 marks in the qualifying examination and on the basis of marks obtained in the qualifying examination he is said to have applied for being selected to M.B.B.S. course.
Petitioner appeared in the test and in the viva voce also, but he could not be selected. Petitioner challenges the selection of other candidates and his own non-selection on many grounds. These grounds can be summarised as under :
(i) The objective test which carries 550 marks in four subjects i.e. Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English is not a satisfactory test of assessing the merit of a candidate;
(ii) The marks obtained by a candidate at qualifying examination could not be ignored and they were to be given due weightage. This has rendered the test arbitrary;
(iii) The method of interview also was unsatisfactory and it was not the real test for assessing the merit;
(iv) That the reservation of 50% on the basis of 1971 Census reports is bad and violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution of India and the reservation is made arbitrarily, there being no proper and effective machinery to identify the persons belonging to the said categories and this gives arbitrary power to respondent No. 1 to make the selections;
(v) That Cl. 12 of the Advertisement Notice is challenged as being arbitrary;
(vi) The selection committee is said not to be duly constituted.
(vii) The old method of allocation of marks was better because it provided 80 marks for qualifying examination, 90 marks for objective test and 30 marks for viva voce. This method was arbitrarily changed and qualifying marks were altogether ignored which has affected the petitioners rights because he had secured 80% marks in the TDC Part I.
(viii) Selection was unfair and selection made on the basis of reservation for Actual Line of Control is said to be bad because entire State of Jammu and Kashmir is a Border State.
(ix) There are some allegations against the members of the Selection committee as also inclusion of one Mohd. Amin Additional Secretary, General Department (Trainings) with the selection process, which is said to be mala fide.
3. Selection of respondents 8 to 12 is challenged on so many grounds which are enumerated in various paras of the writ petition. Allegation of favouritism and nepotism is made in respect of selected candidates.
4. Petitioner sought provisional admission which was declined because in the result sheet he was shown to have obtained 49-10 points out of 100 and was placed at Sr. No. 138 in order of merit. It
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