KRISHNA PRIYA GANGULY ETC. v. UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW & ORS. ETC

Citation: [1984] 1 S.C.R. 302

Court: Supreme Court of India

Bench: S. MURTAZA FAZAL ALI, A. VARADARAJAN, M.P. THAKKAR

Case summary

The appeals arise out of the admissions sought by several candidates to the M. Out of these appeals, some of them have beeli dismissed as not pressed, others were heard on merits.

Judgment text

• • :t. RISHNA PRIYA OANGULY ETC. '· UNIVBRSI'TY OF LUCKNOW & ORS. ETC. Octobe;· 'l, 1983 .. [S. MURTAZA fAZAL ALI, A. VARADARAIAN, AND M. P. THAKKAR,,JJ. J AdmisSions to POfl-graduate cour'ses in medicine-Directions grantinf prOvisional admissions pending disposal ofpetitions-approach by Courts. Stille Government orders laying down criteria for admissions-Whether of statutory effect, when they are consistent with rules framed by Medical Council ofIndia? •. This batch of ftppeal_s. arose out of admissions aoughf by several candidates to post-graduate courses in the Medical Colleges of Uttar Pradesh. While in some of them the-candidates were the ·appellants and the State the respondent, in othera it was vice Versa. By an order dated 3-12-i980 the State Governmcnt·had laid d. own that admissions were to be mad'e purely Dn the basis of merit, the criterion being the total percentage of marks obtained by the candidate·in-4he M:B. B. S. examination.

Jn as many as· 9 out of the 20 appeals,· the candidate$ Who had been given provision~l admissions pursuant to "interim orders made by the Court had completed tQeir courSes and only their results were to be declared. IJ;J. all those cases, the State, realising the futility of forcing the candidates to complete the course all ove_r again, conceded that the resu1ts of such c11ndidates may be. declared and on passing the· same they would be admitted to the courses concerned t_hough the candidates in qμestion were lacking in merit and tl,leir original rcjectiori· was justified. I~ one of the appeals . -filed by the State, the can~idate in question had obtained only 43. ,per cCnt F' marks at the M. B. B. S. examination and happened to be the last candidate in the list . of persons wh~ had applied for admissiGn to the post-graduate ,course.

Although the candidate had merely prayed for _a writ directing ·the State or the college to,consider his case·for admission, the High Court, relying mainly ·on · the fact that the. candidate had a diploma to his credit,. straightaway issued a writ of manda~us directing the colle8e to admit him to the course a·pplied for, therCby granting a relief which the candidate himself had not pra~cid for. HELD : The practice of forcing the authorities to grant provisional admissions has been evolved keeping in view the fact that on accouht of huge accumulati~n --0f arrears in courts it takes a long time for petitions to be dis~ posed Or. By the time the. cases come up for hearing, the rejected candidates mieht have completed their course and become Ctigible for admission to the higher course although the court may ultimately find th'at their initial rCjeCtion was justified and they did not deserve to be admitted to the course. Such a ,ituation becol!

les a sort offall qccompll for those in charae of the institutions . it. fl. G~NGULY v. LUCKNOW uNJ\iERSITY (Fazal Ali, /. ) so~ .. at a r1srilt or which the candidates are admitted in due deference to the desire of the court by increaSina: or creatini vacancies ~ven in the absence Or proper facilities to_ train the extra candidates. Unless the institutions can provide complete facilities for the training Or each candidate admitted 'in the various disciplines, the medical. education will be incomplete and. the universities would be turning out doctors not fully qualified which would adversely affect the ' health'of the people in general. Therefore, the" practice of lightly granting Provisional admisSions should be discontinued in future.

Whenever a writ petition is filed, provisional admission should not be given as a matter of course on the petition being admitted unleSs the coqrt is fully satisfied that the petitioner has a cast-iron case which, is bound to succeed or the error is so tross or apparent that no other conclusion iS: possible. In order . to test this ' , fact, even a short notice may bo givCn to explore as to what the other side has to say and thereafter if the court is satisfied that there is a strong prima facie case and the matter needs thorough examination, provisional admissio-9 may be aivcn. The State Government order dated 3-12-1980 preSctibing the- criteria for admission to post-grad~atc couises in Medical Co:lleges made under s. 28(5) of the U. P. State Universities Act, 1973; is'fully consistent with the tenor and 5pirit of the rules framed by the Medical Council Of India. The rules framed by the Medical Council of India have a . stattitory effect under s.

33 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and are binding on all the colleges arid universities providing for medical education in tfie country! The High Court had made avery arbitrary, casual and _lac. onic approach to the case of the candidate who had obtained 43 per cent nia,ks and based its judgment purely on speculation and conjectures swept- away by. the consideratiO~ that the ~andidri. tC po! sessed a 4i_ploma to his credit when, in fact, other candidates also had obtained diploma and that could not be taken into s:onsideration under the prescribed rules. • C1v1L APPELLATE JuRrso1cToN : Civil Appeal Nos. 133-134, 137•140, 142-146, 595, 3045-3046of1982. (Appeals by Special . leave Petitions from the Judgment and Order dated the Ist October, 1981 & 14th August, 198i of the Allaha• bad High Court (Lucknow Bench) in ·Writ Petition Nos. 1834;3946, 3825, 2953, 4163, 4177, 4234, 4319. 4320, 3591, 3775, 2952 and 1662 of 1981). · ·With. . • Civil Appeal No.

3047 of 1982 Appeal by Special leave from the Judgment and -Order dated the 19th March, 1982 of the Allahabad High Court (Luckiiow Bench) . in WP. No. 4245 of 1981. · SUPREMll COURT REPORTs · (1984) i s. C. A. • ADVOCATES FOR THE APPEARING PARTIES: A. S. N. Kacker, Ms. S. Bhandare; . T. Sridharan & Ms. C. K. ·Sudhariata. •K. K. Jain, M. ·D. Sagar, P. Dayal, Pankaj Katra, R. P. Singh, V. A. Bobde, K. J. John, AltafAhmed, Kai/ash Vasdev, Ms. Vrinda, Anil Kumar Gupta, Brij Bhushan, Kapil Sibil, Ms. S. Dikshit, Sudhi Kulshreshtha, B. R. Agarwala, R. H. Pancholi, Vijayalakshmi Menon & · B. P. Sin1h. . . The Judgment of the Court was delivered bY Fazal Ali. J. : Soon after our hard ·won freedom there was a gradual rise in the urban population in view of the process 0f indus· rialisation and setting up of heavy projects and industries in order . to make ou'r country more and more self-sufficient. This led to a certain spurt and rise in the.

urban population as people from the rural areas started pouring into the urban cities which provided far better opportunitieJl for educatiqu and employment than the rural areas. · This sudden increase in urban population led to the spread of epidemics and dise~ses resulting in a rapid growth of educational institutions both in the public and private sectors. In these appeals, we are concerned only with the medical edu· · cation; the Government had to face a serious problem with the com- . ing up of medical colleges which started growing like mushrooms and were charging huge capitation fees to make substantial profits without providing proper medical education and caring precious little for achieving excellence of standards in medical education which, if denuded of such standards, would pose a serious health hazard to the people.

Surely, we would not wish that people ivho could ill-afford to go in for well equipped expensive medical practi· tioners should be thrown at the mercy of quacks. Similar situation arose in technical, engineering and other kinds of institutions but we would concentrate on the feature ·and facets of medical education which alone forms the subject-matter' of these appeals. We have seen . from our experience that ·each year there is a:huge' rush for admission to seats in medical colleges for various course. s, which being rather few and insufficient to control or absorb all sorts and kinds of candidates as the well-known Persian proverb "JAYE TANG AST WA MARDUMA BISYAR" (i. e. little space and people many) seems aptly to apply in such a situation. However, in order to meet the Ii. t>. GANGULY v. i\JckNo\v uN1vERs11'1' (FazalAli, J.

) 3o5 contingency resulting from a heavy rush for admissions the institu• tions set up certain standards or tests which had to be complied with before candidates could be admitted. Here also, as in other spheres, favouritism and nepotism have their own role to play as result of which merits suffer. In order to me~t these contingencies and· ward off such evils, the Government through its circulars and the Medical Council of India being alive to this delicate and difficult problem sought to solve the problem by making rules and regulations for admission of candidates to various courses in different disciplines (subjects) to achieve excellence in medical standards kee• pini: in view statutory and constitutional reservations. Unfortunately, however, these rules were often ftcfuted and observed mon; in breach than in compliance by those who were in charge of the medical education : the result was again a huge spurt of .

writ petitions in the High Court to weed out the inefficient and ineligible and absorb the efficient and eligible, With this sport prdude, now to the facts of the case which disclose a sad story indeed-not because those in charge of the institu- .. tions commit errors . but because the courts start, . directing the autho- . t rities to grant provisional admissions to students . even if they did not deserve the same in some cases, Experience has shown that in -r view of the huge accumulation of arrears in courts, it takes a Jong tim. e for the petitions to be disposed of, hence we have evolved the I practice of forcing the authorities to grant. provisional admissions wllich has .

resulted in a piquant and pungent situation because by the time the case comes up for hearing, 'the rejected candidates having completed their course and having appeared at the examination with every hope of success become eligible for admission to the higher course in case of success though the Court may ultimately find that their initial rejection was justified. Such a situation becomes a sort · of a fait accompli for those in charge of the institutions as a result of which the candidates are admitted in due deference to the desire of the court by increasing or creating vacancies even in the absence of suitable and proper facilities to train the extra candidates: This results in an anathema and a dilemma for which there is hardly any remedy.

The present cases are a clear illustration of this problem Our suggestions, therefore, is that whenever a· writ petition is filed provisional admission should not be given as a matter of course on the petition being admitted unless the court is fully. satisfied that the petitioner has a cast-iron case which is bound to succeed or the error is so gross or apparent that no other conclusion is possible. In order, however, to test this fact even a short notice may·be given fo ' StlPREMil COtiRt iu! PORtS · t1984] 1 s. c. t. ; explore as. to what the other side has to say and thereafter if the court is satisfied that there is strong prima facie case and the matter needs thorough examination, provisional admission may be given. We hope and trustthat the High Courts would in future discontinue the practice of lightly granting provisional admission to the candi· ~ dates at the time of regular admissions, as observed above.

It is needless to state that this Court on its part would also be extremely • reluctant to- grant provisional admission and would do so only in a· very special case. The . fundamental reason for this is that other· wise the institutions are likely to become overcrowded by candidates, eligible or ineligible, efficient or inefficient. Unless tho Institutions can provide complete and full facilities for the training of each canoidate who is admitted in the various disciplines, the medical education will be incomplete and the universities would be turning out Doctors not fully qualified which wol! ld adversely affect the health of the people in general. Out of these appeals, some of them have beeli dismissed as not pressed, others were heard on merits. By the time the case was taken up by this Court, in as many as 9 out of the 20 appeals the .

candi· dates had completed their courses and as ouly the result had tci be declared, the counsel for the State with his usual fairness, realising the futility of forcing the candidaies to complete . the course all over . again conceded that the results of such candidates may be declared · and on passing the same they would be admitted to the courses concerned though the petitioners were lacking in merits and their original rejection was justified. We made this direction by a formal t order, the reasons for which we would give hereafter. This now brings us to the consideration of the appeals which. survive. ·Before dealing with the individual cases of the appellants/ •respondents, it may be necessary for us to adjudicate on the. validity of the circulars passed by the Go. ,ernment and the· ru'es and regula·. .

J tions framed by the Medical Council of India, to put the matter beyond controversy so that a consistent test may be applied to all candidates desiring admission and unless rules are adhered to, admi• ssions would be denied in which case this· Court will not interfere in · the absence of a plea of prejudice. or bias which would be naturally for the candidates to establish. In some cases the candidates are appellants and in a few the State is the appellant and therefore for facility,. the candidates who have filed appeals against refusal for. admission to the M. D. M. S. •• i{,p, the competin1;1 candidates : • 'suPkE!. m toiJit'r REPORTS ! 198411 s. c. I\..

"The Governor, considering it so necessary and keeping in view the recommendations of the Medical Council of India, is pleased to order thatwith effect from December 14, 1979 the following policy and procedure shall be followed with regard to the admission of candidate in the Post graduate course (Degree and Diploma) in the State Medical Colleges and the Kjng Georges Medical Colleges, Lucknow. "' (1) Admission shall be made only on the basis of merit. (2) The basis of determining the merit shall be percentage of marks worked out after deducting One percent · marks for each failure in every subject from the total percentage of marks obtained in the M. B. B. S, Examination. In case of a candidate who fails in a subject and is declared successful in second or subse-· quent attempt in that subjei:t, the marks obiained by him for day-to-day performance in the first examination in that subject shall be added to his iota! marks while preparing the said index. " · .

The Order seems to us to be fully consistent with the ltenor and spirit of the Rules framed by the Medical Council of lnd•a, which is a statutory body, whose Rules are binding on all the colleges and universities in the country providing for medical education. On an interpretation of the Government Order the High Court was of the opinion that a Candidate passing MBBS examination in four subjects with·a 3rd Division cannot be preferred to the one possessihg the said degree iii one subject only with a first division because that would decide the index of mel'i. t. The Government Order. was made under s. 28(5) of the U. P. State Universities Act, 1973 (U. P. Act No. X of 1973) (for short, hereinafter to be referred to as the 'Act'). The High Court also correctly found that merely because a candidate happens to obtain a Diploma after passing MBBS Examb nalion in any subject he would not be entitled to weightage for other- · wise tb.

e entire complexion of pure' merit and sui~ability as iniended by the Government Order, wb. ich does no! provide for any such weightage, would be set at naught. II. This now brings us to the relevant provisions of the Rules framed by the Medical Council of India on the . recommendations • K. P. GANGULY v. LUCKNOW UNIVERSITY (Pazal Ali, J. ) . of Post;graduate Medical Education which were adopted in February 1971, i. e. IQng before the present writ petitions were filded in the High Court. The relevant portions of the Rules may. be extracted thus (I) For M. D. /M. S. Degree in clinical subjects, there jhall be proper training in basic medical sciences related to the disciplines concerned as well as paper in these subjects at the examination. In the case of :t. ;i. D. & M. S. in basic medical sciences there should be training in applied aspects of the subject and a paper on the Subject.

(2) Thesis should be a part of the examination in the degree courses as this gives training in research methodology. (3) The student teacher ratio, should be such that the number of post-graduate teachert to the number of posi-graduate students admitted per year be maintained at 1:1. For the proper training of. the post. graduate students, there should be a limit to the number of student admitted per year. For this purpose every unit should consist of atleast 3 full time postgraduate teachers and can admit not more than 3 students for postgraduate training per. year. If the number of post-graduate teachers in the unit is more than three then the number of students can be increased proportionately. For this purpose one student shout r ~admission to post-graduate medical courses. /. The other niethods covered by the Rules are not germane for the purpose of deciding these cases. As these Rules were adopted by the Medical Council of India they became rules m'lde under s.

33 of the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 passed ·by the Govern• ment oflndia and, there-fore, had doubtless a statutory effect. ' The candidates consist of students who had not been admitted to the medical courses and· they have assailed the refusal of their admission as being violative of Art. 14 ·of the Constitution. and to the statutory orders passed and . rules. framed by the ·Government from time to time. In some cases, the Government order referred to above has also been chailenged as being arbitrary ·~nd outside the scope of Art. 14. Before dealing with the contentions of the parties on merit we might dispose of a few matters as a result of which some of the -. appeals do not survive at all. As observed above, the admission sought . by the candidates were in the session. of 19Sl-82 anci by the time these cases came Up for hearing by.

the High Court or tliis Court, the session , lias completely run out but as provisional admissions had been allowed · either by the High Coμrt or by this Court the candidates had com· ·' · pleted thefr M. D. /M. S. courses and in some cases only the results were to be declared. Realising the piquant situation that arose in» view of the provisional admissions, the learned counsel for the State · . very fairly agreed to . the declaration of the results of the followini: Cllndidates : 1. Dr. Krishna Priya Ganguly (C. A. 133/82) 2. Dr. Gopal Krishan Goyal (C. A. 134/82) 3. Dr. Pramod ·Kumar Kohli (C. A. 137/82) I • The counsel for th~ State further agreed to passing an order that those candidates who were refused admission · but granted provisional admissions under the orders of the Court may be deemed to be admitted to complete the course according to the provisions of the Rules.

We might mention that this concession was made because the candidates concerned had secured pretty high percentage and sincethey had completed the course in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the cas. e.. ' As far as C. A. No. 3045/82 filed by the State against the decision ofthe High Court is concerned, the view taken by the High Court is U(\sustainaple. The High Court could not have given a goby to the rules framed by Admission committee. It was a matter for decision of the academic body and since the academic body had applied the rules in a bona fide manner to all the students equally, there was no jurisdiction whats. oever . on die part of the High Court to interfere with the internal working of an academic institution concerned with imparting higher education in the field of post-gradual~ course in medicine. The Rule prescribing . F that housemanship must be 'in the same subject is not inconsistent with the Ordinance.

·It is supplementary to the Ordinance and amplifies the same. Hence· there is no inconsistency and the High Court was therefore clearly wrong. However, as the counsel for the State has agreed to declare his result we do not pass any order for reversing the directive issued by the High Court as far as Dr. . ""' ·· Hari Om Gupta is concerned though the High Court was wrong. As regards C. A. No. 3047/82 which has been filed by the State, the view taken by the. High Court is altogether untenable, The condition re! larding putting in two years work in the department · concerned could not have been dispensed with. The High Court . 1hould not have Interfered with the decision. of the academic body. The Hip Court cannot relax the rules. or rewrite them. After the K. P. GANGULY v. LUCKNOW UNIVERSITY (Fazal Ali, J.

) 313 declaration of his result, as agreed to by the counsel for the State, if he fails at this examination he will have to ptit in two 'years work in the department concerned before he is permilted to appear for the final examination next time. So far as the above-mentioned appeals are concerned, f it is not necessary for us to go to the merits or to giv~ the reasons thereof in view of the fact that the candidates got what they wanted, on the basis ! Jf the concession made by the counsel for the State and accepted by this Court, as a result of which we passed orders for declaring the results of the candidates or directing them. to complete the course. We would however like to make it clear that after declaration of the results in ca~e the candidates concerned in appeals do not pass ot their thesis are not approved, they would have to do ·~· the full course all over again.

This position was accepted by the candidates who conceded that in case they failed in the examination the Iogical consequences will follow. The candidates who were directed by this Court to be given admission may be listed below : n· I. Dr. Aditya Kumar (C. A. No. 142/82) 2. Dr. Manoj Kumar (C. A. No. 143/82) • The appeals that remain for consideration may now· be taken up, viz. , C. A. Nos. li4',145 and 595/82. We might mention here that out of the appeals filed by the State the appeal which has been . seriously pressed before is that of Dr. V;N. Sinha (C. A. No. 595/82) ·and the State·has invited us. to· give a final decision in the matter which involves a serious question of principle. Coming first to C. A. No. 144/82 filed by Dr. Rachna Saxena it appears that she had obtained an aggregate of 53. 7% but the main obstacle in her way was that two candidates with a higher aggregate had been admitted and therefore her case did not merit any consideration.

Even from a_mongst those who did not secure admiy· ssion there ware four others who bad secured higher marks than her viz. , Dr. Ganguly (59. 23)%, Dr. Agarwal (57. 40%), Dr. Jain (56. 9%) and Dr. Upadhyaya (55. 33%). She could not therefore have secured admission in any event. She· cannot therefore complain . of discrimination. For . these reasons, therefore, we affir~ the decision of the High Court and dismiss C. A. 144/82 without any ord. er as · to costs, Sl4 (1984) l s. c. a. C. A. No. 145i82 has been filed by Dr. V. K. Kohli. After going through the judgment of the High Court and hearfog counsel for the parties we entirely agree with the view taken by the High Court which seems to us to be unexceptionable on merits and must be confirmed. The appeal is therefore dismissed· without any order as to costs. . ' Coming now to C. A. No.

595/82 which has been filed by the State it seems to us after hearing counsel for the parties that the stand taken by the State is absolutely correct and ·for' the reasons . ' t~t we will giv~ hereafter we find it impossible to support the judgment of the High Court. To begin with, Dr. Vijay Narain Sinha who was being considered for admission to the M. s: course in Orthopaedic surgery had obtained only 43% marks' in the aggregate and happened to be the last candidate in the list of persons who had applied for admission to the M. D. /M. S. course. This important handicap relatin'g to Dr. Sinha seems to have been completely glo. ssed over by the High Court by saying that though he has not secured very high marks but he could be almost equai in all respects to the candidates who'had been . granted admission. This, however, was not so.

The main argume,nt of the High Court was that in determining'the six admissions whifh were ·made in consonance with the prescribed, instructions indicated that the ratio of admission should be with respect to the strength of the staff in the concerned department. The main complaint of. the ·· respondent (Dr. Sinha) was that while there were six teachers in. the Department of Orthopaedic surgery, nine admissions were made in that ·particular session. The Staie had clearly explained. that the . usuJll number of candidates to be admitted was six and as a . special case due to fortuitous circumstances an exception was made only in one session for good reasons . which had been given by the State. Thereafter no S\! ch departure had been . made in any other session. What the High Court completely over-looked was that even if nine . students were admitted Dr. Sinha could not have secured admission as he was on the very bottom of the list in view of the very low percentage secured by him. .

The stand take11 by the State has not been refuted by the counsel for the respondent who submitted that since the State had 'agreed to declare the results of all the candidates the respondent may also be given the same facility. We arc, however, · unable 'to agree with this argument because to grant admission to a person who is appreciably below the required merit would be to play 'tq. P'. GANGULY v. LUCKNOW UNIVERSITY (Faza/ Ali, J. ) 315 with the lives of the people whom Jhe candidate would have to treat after getting the MS. degree. The High Couri seems to have reUed mainly on the fact that in view of the increase in population and orthopaedic cases the college must have pe~sons with special qualifications and as the respondent had a diploma that should be treated to be a special qualification. A mere diploma however c~nnot override the ,consideration . regarding the merit as disclosed in the low ll aggregate obtained by him in the last MBBS examination.

If the college authorities went by the pure test of merit, the diploma could not be a good substitute for admitting the lowest and the last candidate in the list. · The High Court could not devise its own criterion for admission. Since the academic body has mad°(, the marks obtained· in MBBS examination the criterion, admission had to be made by such a criterion. The High Court could not have introduced its own notions in such an academic matter. The High Court was not competent to do so and had no jurisdiction to import its own ideology, The High Court further observed that . the respondent appears . to be a Very dedlc'ated worker having acquired a diploma and would have proved an invaluable asset to the Institution. We do not see + any proper material for this conclusion to which the High Court has · suddenly jumped apart from the fact that admissions were not to be given by the High Court a~~ording to its own notions.

Finally, in his own petition in the High Court, the respondent had merely • prayed for a writ directing the State or the college to consider his case for admission yet the High Court went a step further and strai- • ghtaway issued a writ of mandamus directing the college to admit him to the M. S. course and thus granted a relief to the respondent ' • which he himself never prayed for and could not have prayed for. Such a gross discrimination made in the case of a person wh. o had obtainod . lowest aggregate and· lowest position seems to us to be extremely shocking. Although much could be said against the view taken by the High Court yet we would not like to say more than this that the High Court had made a very arbitrary, casual and laconic apQroach to the case and based its judgment purely on speculation and conjectures swept away by the consideration that Dr. Sinha possessed a diploma when °in fact other candidates also had obtained diploma but that could not.

be taken into consideration, because the rules 'did not so J? rovide · \ 31~ SUP1IJ! MB COURT REPORTS (1984) 1 s. c. a. For these reasons, therefore, we allow this ·appeal and set aside ~c judgment of the High Court issuing mandamus to the State to admit the respondent to the M. S. coune'. His writ petition in the High. Gourt thus stands dismissed. ,, ' ' . ~ H. •. e. B .. .. ' .. • •