ORDER :

A.P. SAHI, J.

This legal battle has been brought forth practically by all the major political parties of the State and a couple of individual candidates seeking admission regarding reservations for the Other Backward Classes in the All India Quota seats contributed/surrendered by the State relating to Under Graduate and Post Graduate medical courses in the State Government/Union Territory and the Aided Medical Colleges, the admissions whereto are regulated by the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India. The concern has been expressed by political forums and this is a unique litigation where the State Government in power in Tamil Nadu has also joined hands on an equal footing with the other petitioners to press forward the implementation of such reservation.

2. All the thirteen writ petitions before us broadly raise one issue, namely, that of non implementation of the policy and percentage of reservation for Other Backward Classes in the State of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry, to the extent as provided for – 69% (50% for Other Backward Categories and 19% for the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Categories in the State of Tamil Nadu), and 50% (34% for Other Backward Categories and 16% for the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Categories in the Union Territory of Puducherry) to such of the seats in the Under Graduate as well as Post Graduate Courses of recognized State run Medical Institutions within the above territories, contributed towards the All India Quota pool by the State, namely 50% of the seats in the Under Graduate courses and 15% seats of the Post Graduate Courses run in these institutions, including Dental Education Courses.

3. The challenge is based on the ground that such reservation has constitutional backing and is protected under Article 15(4) and (5) of the Constitution of India read with the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 1993 and the amended Medical Council of India Regulations for Graduate Medical Education as well as for Post Graduate Medical Education.

4. It is the contention of all the petitioners that reservation of seats in medical colleges for respective categories has to be provided as per applicable laws prevailing in States/Union Territories, nonetheless, in spite of these provisions being in place, and the proposal by the Union Government itself as disclosed in the short counter-affidavit filed by them, both in these proceedings as well as a similar affidavit filed in W.P.(C) No.596 of 2015 pending before the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Dr. Saloni Kumari and another v. Director General, Health Services and others, which is incidentally sworn by the same Officer, no steps have been taken to extend this benefit of reservation against All India Quota seats contributed/surrendered by the State in spite of having specifically provided for and, therefore, a mandamus has been prayed for seeking implementation of reservation in favour of the Other Backward Categories to the aforesaid class of All India Quota seats available in the State run medical colleges and also apply the same percentage of State specific reservation in the institutions run and managed by the Central Government.

5. It is contended that, by not doing so, the respondents, namely, Union of India and the Medical Council of India, as well as the Counselling Agency, are acting arbitrarily by not enforcing the provisions of law for extending such benefit, thereby depriving the members of the Other Backward Categories from achieving their target of getting admission against All India Quota seats in these courses. It is urged that this action is not only arbitrary and in violation of the aforesaid legal provisions, but is also discriminatory, i