The main legal point established in the judgment is that the admission of students to the MBBS course must adhere to the proper procedure for filling vacant seats as per the judgment of the Apex Court and the MCI Regulations.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the order dated 11.2.2021 passed in W.P.No.3234 of 2021.)

For the Appellant: Vishnu Venkatesh, Advocate. For the Respondents: P. Muthukumar,

State Government Pleader, Assisted by R1, K.M.D. Muhilan, Government Advocate, J. Ravindran, Addl. Advocate General [Coordination] Assisted by R2, M. Sneha, Standing Counsel.

Munishwar Nath Bhandari, J.

1. The writ appeal is directed against the judgment dated 11.2.2021 passed in W.P.No.3234 of 2021 by which the writ petition filed by the appellant was dismissed.

2. The writ petition was filed to seek a direction on the respondents to issue hall tickets for the nine students admitted by the appellant medical college to MBBS course. The examinations were scheduled to be held from 15.2.2021. The learned Single Judge refused to grant relief to the appellant medical college.

3. If this court goes by the relief prayed in the writ petition, it would be an infructuous litigation because permission to write the examinations scheduled from 15.2.2021 cannot be given now. Tthe above observation has been made because the relief prayed by the medical college cannot be granted for the aforesaid reason.

4. It is a case where for the academic year 2019-2020 of MBBS Course, the appellant medical college was not figured in the list of the medical colleges to whom the students were to be allotted by the Selection Committee. The appellant college thus filed a writ petition, being W.P.No.23726 of 2019, and in pursuance of the order dated 19.8.2019, the name of the appellant college was included in the list and, accordingly, counselling was conducted by the Selection Committee on 27.8.2019 and recommended the names of 150 students. According to the appellant medical college, only 141 students out of 150 took admission till the last date given by the Selection Committee, i.e., till 5 pm on 29.8.2019. Nine students did not appear for admission and, accordingly, the appellant medical college notified the vacancies on their website inviting eligible candidates for admission. The candidates were directed to report to the appellant medical college by 30.8.2019, as the last date to complete the process was 31.8.2019. The nine vacancies were accordingly filled from and amongst the meritorious candidates reported to the appellant medical college on 30.8.2019. In view of the above, the appellant medical college has shown its bona fide in filling up the nine vacant seats and, therefore, prayed for issuance of hall tickets to the nine students to write the examinations scheduled from 15.2.2021.

5. Learned counsel for the appellant submits that without taking note of the bona fide of the appellant medical college, the learned Single Judge dismissed the writ petition and, therefore, this appeal has been preferred. It is stated that when the nine students did not report till 5 pm on 29.8.2019 and the last date to complete the process of admission was 31.8.2019, the appellant was having only two intervening days and, thus, they immediately called for applications from eligible candidates by hosting it on their website. Pursuant to the same, many students reported for admission, but the appellant medical college gave admission to meritorious candidates only. It is not that the appellant medical college was having sufficient time to report the vacant seats to the Selection Committee so as to get a list of students in the ratio of 1:10 to give admission to them by 31.8.2019. In view of the time constraint, the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Dar-Us-Slam Educational Trust & Ors vs. Medical Council of India & Ors. (W.P. (Civil) No.267 of 2017 - Dated 09.05.2017) could not be applied. Therefore, the prayer is to set aside the judgment of the learned Single Judge and to permit the nine students to complete their studies. They have already suffered in their s