Adherence to admission timelines set by authorities is mandatory, and extensions beyond these deadlines are not permissible under the current legal framework.

JUDGMENT :

Subhash Upadhyay, J.

1. As both the Writ Petitions involve similar question of facts and law hence, the same are being decided by the common Judgment.

2. The petitioners have filed the present Writ Petitions with the following identical prayers:

(a) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus thereby directing the respondents, particularly, respondent nos. 1, 2 & 4 to give admission to the petitioner against the vacant medical seat for Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) in Periodontolgoy Department in Seema Dental College & Hospital (respondent no.4) in accordance to the result of the Stray Round for Uttarakhand State Centralized Counseling conducted by respondent no.2 for academic Sessions 20025-26; or alternately,

(b) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of madams thereby directing the respondents, particularly, respondent no. 1 to 3 to conduct one more special/stray round of Uttarakhand State Centralized Counseling to fill up vacant medical seats of Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) for Academic Year 2025-26 from the waiting list candidates of the Stray Round for Uttarakhand State Centralized Counseling already conducted by respondent no.2.

3. The case of the petitioners, in a nutshell, is that they have appeared in the NEET PG MDS Examination 2025 for admission to the Academic Sessions 2025-26 and applied for the Uttarakhand State Centralized counseling conducted by the respondent no.2. The grievance of the petitioners is that stray around of the Uttarakhand MDS counseling started on 26.08.2025 and ended on 08.09.2025 and due to non-joining of candidates in the merit list the seats remained vacant, however, the respondents have not offered the said seats to the petitioners. Counsel for the petitioners submits that seats were vacant due to non-joining of candidates and petitioners were next in the merit, as such, directions may be issued to the respondents to accept the candidatures of the petitioners and they may be provided admission in MDS course.

4. Per Contra, learned counsel for the respondent no.2 on instructions submits that the last date for admission was 08.09.2025 and as per the instructions issued by the Dental Council of India on 02.09.2025 no admission can be provided after the cutoff date and every institute has to upload the details of the admission given and the respondent no. 4, i.e., Seema Dental College & Hospital & Hospital has specified that no such admission was done after the cutoff date i.e. after 08.09.2025.

5. We have heard learned counsel for the parties. The issue with regard to admission through NEET PG MDS Examination and the time schedule to be adhered, is not res integra.

6. The Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Mridul Dhar (Minor) and another vs. Union of India and others, reported in (2005) 2 SCC 65 , has issued directions that the time schedule for grant of admissions is to be ad herered. There were certain Writ Petitions filed before the Hon’ble Apex Court for the academic session 2025-26. In Writ Petition (Civil) No. 456 of 2025, Aditi & others vs. National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences & others, the Hon’ble Supreme Court on 30.05.2025 passed the following Orders:

“Heard the learned counsel appearing for the parties.

2. Basically, two issues have been raised in the present petitions.

3. One is that the holding of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Post Graduate) (NEET-PG) 2025 examination in two shifts would give rise to arbitrariness as it does not extend a level playing field to all the candidates, inasmuch as two question papers can never be of the same standard and level of difficulty. Last year, the NEET-PG examination was held in two shifts and the process of normalization was adopt