SUPREET BATRA AND ORS. v. UNION OF INOIA AND 'ORS.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

RAJENDRA BABU, J. These petitions are offshoot of a Scheme framed · by this Court in Sharwan Kumar, etc. etc, . v. Director General of Health F Services & Anr. etc. etc., {1993] 3 sec 332, prescribing the procedure to complete the process of allotment of 15 per cent· of All-India quota for admission to MBBS/BDS courses in various colleges in the country by September [now changed to 7th August] each year. The said Scheme was modified pursuant to an order made in I.A.No.IO of2000 in WP{C} No.443 of 1992 and the date fixed, as stood altered, as indicated therein and the last G date for receipt of vacancy position is fixed as 7st August of each year and the Ilnd round of counselling is proposed to be taken between the period from 16th August to 18th August of each year.

Now in these petitions, it is contended that selection or counselling has not been done in some States and therefore, they would not take full advantage · H. of llnd round of counselling. The details are set forth as under :

SUPREET BATRA v. U.0.1. [S. RAJENDRA BABU, J.) 589 a. The date of the PMT in Punjab has. been altered from 23rd June A --..( to 21st July, 2002.

b. The States of Haryana and Ottar Pradesh have only conducted their PMT on 30th June, 2002 .

c. . In the state of Karnataka the counselling sessions for the Kamataka quota will commence on the 3 I st of August and the B counselling sessions for the non-Kamataka quota will commence on 11th September, 2002.

d. In the State of Rajasthan, the results of the PMT were declared on 26th June, 2002. However, no counselling schedule has been declared so far. c e. In the State of Bihar, the date of the PMT had been shifted from ~ 9th June to I Ith July, 2002 . ... f. In the State of Jharkhand, the date of the pre-entrance test for D screening has been fixed at 7th July, 2002 and no date has been fixed for the main entrance text i.e. the P.M.T.

g. In the State of West Bengal, no date has been announced vis-a- vis the counselling sessions.

h. In the state of New Delhi, the DPMT was conducted on 18th E May, 2002 and the date of the counselling is scheduled to be held on 16th and 17th July, 2002 .

i. .In the States of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, they have not conducted the PMT yet. A- F j. Vis-a-vis All India All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the test was conducted ·on I st June, 2002 and the counselling is scheduled to be held on 29th July, 2002.

It is submitted that the candidates from these States who have been allotted seats in the first round of allotment may not have been given the G course or college or place of their choice and in case later on they get the allotment of their choice under the State quota, then they will vacate the seat allotted to them under the All-India Quota. Hence they apprehend ihat more thi;n 700 seats will fall vacant once the counselling is conducted in the aforesaid States. Therefore, it is submitted that a lllrd round of counselling H

590 SUPREME COURT REPORTS . · · · [~003) I S.C.R.

·A is required to be held in th~ special features of the case and that the vacant . seats, if any, should arise in the '15 per cent All-India Quota seats should not . be. allowed to· revert back to the States/Colleges after 7th. August, 2002 and that instead of.successful.and meritorious candidates in.the All-India Quota should be allotted these seat.s and pass such other orders as may be necessary.

B This C:::ourt in Dr. Pradeep Jain & Ors., etc. etc. v. Union of India & Ors., etc. etc., (1984] 3 SCC 654 and Dr. Dinesh Kumar & Ors. v. Motilal Nehru Medical College & Ors., [ 1986] 3 SCC 727, while disapproving of the -t-· ' total reservation on different scores in regard to admission of students in medical courses such as MBBS and post-graduate specialities, stated that C· ~'the very mandate of the equality clause viewed in the persp.ective of social justice would justify some extent of reservation preferences for students passing the qualifying examination". The· pri1Dary consideration in formulating the scheme for creating a reservation in favour of candidates is broadly based on national approach as against the State based reservation. This background resulted in the. formulation of the S~heme, which is. sought to be interpreted D or modified now. We should not. read . . the ' Schemes . framed this. Court . as if they are Statutes or that inexorablerights are c~nferred upon the parties. For the academic year 2002..:2003, .1484 5eats for MBBS course and 150 seats for BOS course, totaling 1634 seats were made availab.le by the States under the 15% All-India Quom. On the basis of the results declared by respondent E No.2, 2778 successful candidates were sent .call letters. By the end of the first ro~nd of counselling, the entire 1634 seats were allotted up to 1835th rank.

The contention of the petitioners is that inasmuch as certain circumstances have arisen in view of change of date in the matter of counselling and date by which intimatioq of the vacancy position to the Director General F of Health Services, the scheme frained by· this Court in Shal"Wan Kuniar;s ' · ·.. ~se is not· being given full effect with the consequence of seats reverting to States thus frustrating ·the. Scheme framed by this Court. ·

. As per cl~use 14: ~fthe Scheme, i'f the Dean ~r the Principal of the . concerned college does not ~otify the vacancy position due to no~-jolning of ··0 candidate or candidates in the first· round of counselling before· the ..date to indicated therein; the seats allotted the c~llege wiii be tr~ated aS vacant and ? allotment of candidates will be made agains.t thes~ deemed vacant seats and -,....-... .. it shall be the responsibilitY of the Dean ·or the Principal ·of the. concerned coU~ge give admi.ssio11 tQ those candidates.. to The Ilnd round of allotment by H · person~l appearance will ·be for cand\dates who· were allotted a seat in the

SUPREET BATRA v. U.0.1. [S. RAJENDRA BABU, J.) 591

first round and who wish to change their allotted college/course and wish to A join the same against vacancies arising due to non-joining of the candidates allotted in the first round of personal appearance and for candidates on the merit list who could not be considered for allotment in the .first round. It is thus the Ilnd round of counselling by personal appearance was to be concluded by a particular date. .B When detailed scheme has been framed tbrough orders of this Court and the manner in which it has to be worked out is also indicated tberein, we do not think tbat if in a particular year there is any short fall or certain number of seats are not filled up, the same should be done by adopting one more round of counselling because tbere is no scope for tbe tbird round .of C counselling under tbe Scheme. It would not be advisable to go on altering the scheme as and when seats are vacant. What is to be borne in mind is tbat broad equality will have to be achieved and not tbat ii should result.in any matbematical exactitude. Out of about I 600 seats, if 2()0 seats are not filled < up for various reasons and such not filled up sears were much less in the earlier years, we do not tbink it should result in the tbird round of counselling. D If tbat process is to be adopted tben tbere will be again vacancies and further filling up of tbe seats falling vacant will have to be undertaken. In tbat process, it will become endless until all tbe seats under the All-India Quota are filled up. That is not tbe object of tbe Scheme formulated by tbis Court. The object was to achieve a broad based equality .as indicated by us at tbe E outset and we do not think that any steps have to be taken for altering tbe Scheme. We have taken identical view in tbe decision in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 407 of 2001 (Ms. Nee/u Arora & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors.) and connected matters disposed of on 24.01 .2003. Moreover, tbis Court in Medical Council of India v. Madhu Singh & Ors., (2002] 7 SCC 258, has taken· tbe view tbat there is no scope for admitting students midstream as tbat would. .f be against tbe very spirit of statutes governing medical education. Even if seats are unfilled that cannot be a ground for making mid-session admissions and tbere cannot be telescoping of unfille.d ·seats of one year with permitted seats of tbe subsequent year. If tbese aspects are borne in mind we do not think any reliefs as sought for by the petitioners can be granted under these petitions. These writ petitions shall stand dismissed. G

By an interim order this Court had directed tbat tbe seats in tbe All- India quota should not revert to tbe States. As a consequent tbese seats have not been filled up eitber in AU-India quota or State quota and witb the dismissal of these petitions, tbat interim order gets dissolved. In I.A.No.13 ii

592 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2003) i S.C.R. A tiled in W.P.(Civil] 393 of 2002, it is brought to our notice that the State of Kerala had extended period of Rank List upto December 31, 2002 only and ~ thereafter applicants would lose their eligibility. It is made clear that period , . of validity shall stand extended until .the appropriate ~teps are taken. by the · concerned authorities in that State. · ·

B . Interlocutory Applications filed ~hall stand disposed off in view.of the order made by us in the main petitions. J ·--;-- Petitions dismissed . .