The allocation process for women in the reservation system must adhere strictly to the principles of merit and not exceed the constitutional quota limits.

1. The petitioner who appeared in the Pre Medical Test for admission to first year's M. B. B. S. course for the academic session 2003-2004 and secured 30th, 31st, 38th, 48th and 50th positions in the merit list prepared by the respondents, have questioned the legality, validity and propriety of the action of the respondents 1 to 3 by which the respondents after setting apart 30% seats for women candidates out of 42 seats meant for the open category prepared general merit list. They have challenged that the action of respondents with regard to allocation of seats to women candidates is violative of the concept of horizontal reservation. Horizontal reservation for women in each of the category is under Art.15 (1) of the Constitution of India and not under Art.15 (4), which is meant for vertical reservation.

2. After preparation of scheme by the respondents for conducting the premedical entrance test, Chhattisgarh Madhyamik Shiksha Mandal, Pension Bada, Raipur, issued a notification along with brochure, inviting applications and for conducting the pre - medical entrance test 2003 for admitting the students into medical college, agriculture college and veterinary college in the State of Chhattisgarh. While issuing the brochure for the said examination the students were asked to apply in a prescribed pro forma from 22-4-2003 to 11-5-2003. Chapter - 2 of the brochure relates to rules for admission in medical and dental colleges. R.2 of Chap.2 relates to the definitions. Sub-R.2 of R.2 defines that category means any one category out of three categories i.e. Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC). Sub-R.3 of R.3 defines the cadre (class), which says that anyone out of the three classes will form the cadre i.e. the soldiers, freedom fighters and women. R.3 prescribes the eligibility criteria for the students to appear in the examination. Sub-R.3 of R.3 prescribes the educational qualification for appearing in the examination. Sub-R.4 of R.3 prescribes the age; sub-R.1 of R.4 prescribes 15% seats for all India quota; and sub-R.2 of R.4 prescribes 3% seats for central pool. Sub-R.4 of R.4 prescribes that out of the remaining seats, 15% seats are reserved for SC; 21% seats are reserved for ST; and 14% seats are reserved (except creme lair) for OBC. Sub-R.5 prescribes, horizontal reservation, 3% for Sainik category; 3% for freedom fighter cadre; and 30% for women cadre. Sub-R.7 of R.4 further lays down that on completion of the seats quota of soldiers, freedom fighters and women candidates, a merit list of eligible candidates will be prepared in their own category on the basis of the merit irrespective of cadre, and they will be kept at the right place. Sub-R.9 further lays down that if sufficient number of soldiers, freedom fighters and women cadre candidates are not available then the left out seats will be converted into without cadre seats. This rule further prescribes as to how the counselling shall take place and other procedure to be adopted for admitting the students.

3. On the basis of the break - up of the seats available for each of the category 42 seats remained for unreserved candidates i.e. open category and on the basis of the horizontal reservation (30% reservation) 13 seats have been reserved for women in open category. One seat has been reserved for freedom fighters and one seat for Sainik woman. Being not satisfied with the merit list prepared by respondents 2 and 3, petitioner No.1 approached the Dean, Medical College, Raipur, who in turn informed petitioner No.1 that in