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PETITIONER: RAVINDRA KUMAR RAI

       Vs.

RESPONDENT: STATE OF MAHARASHTRA & OTHERS

DATE OF JUDGMENT:       27/02/1998

BENCH: S.C. AGRAWAL, M. JAGANNADHA RAO, A.P. MISRA

ACT:

HEADNOTE:

JUDGMENT:                       J U D G M E N T M. JAGANNADHA RAO. J.      This writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India  has been  filed against  the State  of Maharashtra (1st respondent) and the Medical Education Department of the State (2nd  respondent) for the issue of a writ or direction commanding the State to hold a Combined Entrance Examination for admission  to Medical  Colleges in the said State and to direct the  State to  start the process for holding the said competitive examination for the students to be admitted into medical colleges  from 1998  onwards. The  writ petition  is based mainly  on the Regulations made by the Indian Medicals Council recently in 1997.      The petitioner has filed this case as a public interest case and  has also  stated that  his daughter  is  going  to appear for  the 12th  standard examination from the Kendriya Vidyalaya, 1, Colaba, Mumbai in march 1998 and that she will become eligible  for admission  to medical colleges in 1998. Petitioner states  that 85%  of  seats  in  Maharashtra  are available for  local students  because 15%  are to go to the All India  Pool. It is pointed out that in maharashtra there are a large number of medical colleges affiliated to various universities like  the Bombay  University, Pune  University, Nagpur  University  etc.  As  of  today  admissions  to  the colleges under  these  University  are  being  made  by  the Medical Education  Department of Government (2nd respondent) solely on  the basis  of marks  obtained at  the  qualifying examinations which  are conducted  by three  Boards, namely, the ISC  Board, the  CBSE Board  and the  Maharashtra Higher Secondary Examination  Board, Under  that  system,  and  2nd respondent invites  applications from students and allocates the students  to the  Medical Colleges in the State, some of them  being  Government  colleges  and  some  under  Private Management and  Municipal Corporations  of Bombay and Thane. It is  pointed out  that according to rulings of the supreme Court., admissions  to  medical  colleges  should  be  based strictly on  merit and  that there should be proper criteria for admissions.  Reference in this connection is made to the Regulations framed  recently by the medical Council of India with the  previous sanction  of the  Central  Government  by

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virtue of  power conferred  on it.  Under section  33 of the Indian Medical  Council Act,  1956.  These  Regulations  are called ’Regulations  on Graduate  Medical Education,  1997’. (Published in  Part III, Section 4 of Gazette of India dated 17.5.1997). Regulation 4 prescribes, in considerable detail, the eligibility criteria  for students with various types of education leading to 10+2 or its equivalent. Regulation 5 is important and reads as follows:      "Reg.5:Selection of  Students:  The      selection of  students  to  medical      college shall  be bases  solely  on      merit  of  the  candidate  and  for      determination   of    merit,    the      following   criteria   be   adopted      uniformly throughout the country:      (1)  In   States  having  only  one      Medical College  and one university      /board /examining  body  conducting      the  qualifying   examination,  the      marks obtained  at such  qualifying      examination  may   be  taken   into      consideration;      (2) In States, having more than one      university /board  /examining  body      conducting      the      qualifying      examination (or where there is more      than one  medical college under the      administrative   control   of   one      authority) a  competitive  entrance      examination should be held so as to      achieve  a  uniform  evaluation  as      there may  be variation of standard      at qualifying examination conducted      by different agencies;      (3) Where  there are  more than one      college in  a state  and  only  one      University/board   conducting   the      qualifying    examination,  then  a      joint    selection     board     be      constituted for all the colleges;      (4)    A    competitive    entrance      examination is absolutely necessary      in the cases of Institutions of All      India character;      (5) To  be eligible for competitive      entrance examination, the candidate      must  have   passed  any   of   the      qualifying     examinations      as      enumerated  under   the  head  note      ’Eligibility Criteria’.      The proviso to the Regulation prescribes the percentage of marks  which are  to be obtained at the qualifying or/and competitive  examinations   by  students   including   those belonging to  SC/ST or  O.B.C.  classification.  It  is  the petitioner’s case  that sub-clause  (2) of  Regulation 5  is attracted to the State of Maharashtra.      A counter  affidavit  has  been  filed  by  the  Deputy Secretary to  the Government  of Maharashtra  in the Medical Education and  Drug Department.  It is stated there that the case of  the State  of Maharashtra  does not fall under sub- clause (2) of Regulation 5 but falls under sub-clause (3) of Regulation 5.  It is accepted that there are several medical colleges and university in the State of maharashtra and that there are also various qualifying examining  bodies i.e. (i) ICS Board  (ii) CBSE  Board  and  (iii)  Maharashtra  Higher

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Secondary Board.  Under the  Maharashtra Board,  there are 7 divisional examination boards and the number of the students who qualify  at 10+2  stage through  the Maharashtra  Board, would be  more than 1,10,000. Those who pass from CBSE would be around  900 and  represent  only  0.5%  or  0.8%  of  the students who  qualify in  10 +  2. It is therefore contended that for  a small  number of students appearing for the CBSE examination, it  will not  be proper to categorize the State of Maharashtra  into sub-clause  (2) of  Regulation 5. It is also pointed out that the Governor of Maharashtra has issued proceedings under  Article 371(2) (c) in regard to 3 regions Vidharba,  Marathwada  and  rest  of  Maharashtra,  and  the admissions for  1997-98 have  to be  made by the Development Boards which  are separately  constituted for the 3 regions. Admissions are  not University  wise  but  are  Development- region wise.  It is  stated that  it will  be  difficult  to implement  the  directions  of  the  Governor  if  a  Common Entrance Examination  is to  be held for the whole State. It is also  stated that it will be an extremely arduous task to conduct a  Common Entrance  Examination for 50,000 students. it involves  setting of  papers, evaluation of answer sheets and preparation of merit lists after taking into account the choices of  the students  in respect  of medical  and Dental colleges and  this will prolong the admission process. It is said that  holding Common  Entrance Examination  for medical and not  for Engineering  courses will be discriminatory. It is then stated that the petitioner’s daughter is yet to pass 10+2 and  petitioner could  even make his daughter apply for the 15%  All India  Pool. Rules for admission to 1998-99 are yet to  be published,  the writ petition is premature and is liable to be dismissed.      We have  heard the  learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned  counsel  for  the  State  of  Maharashtra.  The learned counsel  for the Medical Council  of India supported the writ petitioner’s contention.      We may  at the  outset point out that inasmuch as there are three  Boards in  Maharashtra State  which  conduct  the qualifying examination  and inasmuch  as there  are  several Universities, the  State of  Maharashtra would  clearly fall under sub-clause  (2) of  Regulation 5  made by  the Medical Council and  not under sub-clause(3). The contention for the State that  candidates from  CBSE Board  are small in number does not  appeal to us. Inasmuch as there is no dispute that more than  one Board conducts the qualifying examination and the Universities are more than one in number, sub-clause (3) of Regulation  5, in  our view, is not attracted. It is also not possible  for the  State to say that conducting a common entrance examination  will delay  the admission  process  or that  it   will  be   extremely  difficult  to  conduct  the examination. In  fact the statement in the counter affidavit to the  effect that  the State  has been conducting a common examination  for  1,80,000  at  the  10+2  level  in  the  7 divisional boards  would  itself  show  that  the  State  is capable of  conducting a  common  Entrance  Examination  for admission  to  medical  colleges,  even  if  the  number  of students is  large. We  may also say that in several States, Common Entrance  Examination is  being conducted even before 1997 when these Regulations made by the Medical Council came into force.  In fact in some States, entrance examination is conducted jointly for Engineering and medical students also. We fail  to see why the State of Maharashtra should say that it will be an arduous task.      In a  recent judgment  of this  Court in  Shri  Chander Chinar Bada  Akhara Udasin Society & Others vs. State of J&K & Others  [1996 (5) SCC 732], in the context of admission to

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Medical  Colleges,  and  the  need  for  a  Common  Entrance Examination, this Court observed (p.738) as follows:      "It need  not be  pointed out  that      the percentage  of marks secured by      different applicants  at  different      types of examinations at the higher      secondary stage  cannot be  treated      as   uniform.    Some    of    such      examinations are  conducted at  the      State level, others at the national      level including  the Indian  School      Certificate    examination.     The      percentage  secured   at  different      examinations  are   bound  to  vary      according to  standard  applied  by      such examination  bodies, which  is      well  known.   As  such   a  common      entrance  examination   has  to  be      held."      It has  been, therefore,  held that  a ’Commom Entrance Examination’ for  admission to  Medical Colleges  has to  be held.      We next  come to the contention of the respondent based upon Article  371 (2)(c)  of the Constitution of India. That Article  permits   the  Governor  to  require  an  equitable arrangement be  made for  providing adequate  facilities for ’technical education  and vocational training’ in respect of the areas  Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra. Assuming that  medical education  falls within  the scope of the said  Article, we  do not  think  that  compliance  with Regulation 5(2)  of the  Regulations  made  by  the  Medical Council of  Indian will  in any  manner come  in the  way of giving effect to the provisions of Article 371(2)(c).      Finally, it  was argued for the respondent that. in any event, it will not be possible to conduct a ‘common entrance examination’  for  the  academic  year  starting  from  1998 inasmuch as,  just now,  the time available is too short. We cannot agree. These Regulations have come into force as long back as  on 4.3.1997. There is, in our view, sufficient time available and  all that  is necessary is that the State must immediately  draw  up  the  programme  and  time  table  for conducting the Common Entrance Examination for 1998 year and for other steps in that behalf.      In the  result, we  allow the  writ petition and direct the  State   of  Maharashtra   and  its   Medical  Education Department to  start the  process  for  holding  the  Common Entrance Examination  for admission  to Medical  Colleges in Maharashtra    for  the  year  1998  and  conduct  the  said Examination in  accordance with the ‘Regulations on Graduate Medical Education  1997’ made  by  the  Medical  Council  of India. Writ petition is allowed as stated above.