The court affirmed the necessity of extending admission incentives to all in-service medical professionals, not just specific categories, upholding public interest and compliance with MCI regulations.

L. NAGESWARA RAO, J.

Leave granted.

The ofÏce report shows that some of the Respondents are not served. As the contesting parties are represented through counsel and in view of the urgency of the matter, we have heard these Appeals finally.

2. The above Appeals are filed against the judgment of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. For the sake of convenience, we will refer to the facts of the Appeal filed by the State of Punjab.

3. The Department of Medical Education and Research (Health-III Branch), Government of Punjab notified admissions to Post Graduate degree/diploma courses for the year 2017-2018 on 29.03.2017. As per the said notification, the eligibility criteria and the other conditions shall be as prescribed in the Information Bulletin for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) (Post Graduate) for admission to MD/MS/Post Graduate courses 2017. Clause 17 (III) of the notification dated 29.03.2017 provides for an incentive of 30 per cent of total marks obtained in NEET (PG), 2017 to be granted to in-service doctors of PCMS/PCMS (Dental).

4. The eligibility criteria provided in Clause 17 (IV) are as follows:

“17. Distribution of Seats in Govt. Institutions (Govt. Medical/ Dental College, Amritsar & Patiala, GGS Medical College, Faridkot)

[…]

IV. Eligibility Criteria:

• For in-service Regular PCMS/PCMS (Dental) doctors :-

a) The Eligibility requirements for grant of incentive shall be as under:

i. Regular PCMS/PCMS (Dental) employee

ii. Has completed 4 full years (48 months) service in very difÏcult (Category D) area or 6 full years (72 months) service in difÏcult (Category C) area or an appropriate combination of both. In case of candidates who have completed 5 full years (60 months) of service (as on 01-01-2012), they should have completed 2 full years (24 months) of service in most difÏcult areas or 3 full years (36 months) of service in difÏcult areas. Very difÏcult (Category D)/DifÏcult (Category C)/Most DifÏcult/DifÏcult area, as case may be, shall be defined by Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Punjab.

iii. RMOs once they are selected in PCMS/PCMS (Dental), will be given benefit of rural service rendered by them as RMOs under Zila Parishad.

iv. Has cleared probation period

v. Has good service record

vi. Has no vigilance/departmental/disciplinary inquiry pending against him/her.

vii. Will have 10 years of service left after completion of the course.”

4. Respondents No.1 and 2 challenged Clause 17 of the notification dated 29.03.2017 to the extent that the incentive of 30 per cent of the total marks obtained in the NEET (PG) 2017 was restricted only to in-service PCMS/PCMS (Dental) doctors. The grievance of the writ petitioners was that Rural Medical OfÏcers (RMOs) were excluded from the benefit of the incentive of 30 per cent of the total marks obtained in the NEET examination for the purpose of admission to Post Graduate courses.

5. The writ petitioners relied upon Regulation 9 (IV) of the MCI Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000 to contend that the incentive of a maximum of 30 per cent of the marks obtained in the NEET (PG) examination should be extended to Rural Medical OfÏcers who have worked in remote and difÏcult areas. They relied upon the judgment of this Court reported in State of UP v. Dinesh Singh Chauhan , (2016) 9 SCC 749 to contend that Regulation 9 is a complete code governing the admissions to medical courses and the State Government has no authority to issue instructions contrary to the Regulations. The High Court framed three questions for consideration which are as follows:

“(i) Whether restricting the grant of incentive for service in remote or difÏcult areas to PCMS/PCMS (Dental) doctors while