Rajasthan decision on PG medical admissions upheld

By T. Padmanabha Rao

NEW DELHI, AUG. 16. The Supreme Court has upheld the Rajasthan Government's decision fixing 33 per cent as ``qualifying marks'' for ``in-service candidates'' to render them eligible for admission to the post-graduate (PG) medical courses and also increase in the ``reservation of seats'' for them from 25 per cent to 50 per cent out of the remaining 75 per cent of the seats after excluding 25 per cent of the seats reserved for ``Central quota'' for admission to P.G. medical courses.

Delivering the judgment, Mr. Justice Doraiswamy Raju dismissed a group of appeals from certain aggrieved candidates against the verdict of a Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court which set aside an order of a single judge of the HC insofar as he (the Single Judge) interfered with the increase in the percentage of reservation made for `in-service candidates' from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. The decision of the State Government fixing 33 per cent to be the `qualifying marks' for in-service candidates to render them eligible for PG medical courses in the medical colleges of the State was, however, upheld by the single judge.

The Bench, which included Mr. Justice S. Rajendra Babu, observed that ``it is permissible for the Government to fix such a source or classification of candidates from which selection for admission to the PG colleges in the State had to be made for yet another genuine, relevant and reasonable cause and purpose, which has, in our view sufficient nexus to the larger goal of equalisation of educational opportunities and to sufficiently prefer the doctors serving in the various hospitals run and maintained from out of public funds by the Government or Government departments.''

In the absence of such a power, ``there would be serious dearth of qualified PG doctors and experts to meet the requirements of such hospitals run by the State and State Departments, the only avenue open for the treatment of the large body of ordinary common man, all over the State,'' the Bench noted adding that ``this larger public interest, unlike reservations envisaged for SC/ST with a different and laudable purpose to assist educationally backward classes, is a distinct and vitally important public purpose in itself absolutely necessitated in the best of public interest.''

``The in-service candidates in contrast to the fresh or open candidates have to spend much of their time on attending and treating the patients in the hospitals they serve gaining excellence on the practical side and, in our view they would constitute a distinct class by themselves to be given a special treatment,'' the Bench noted adding that, therefore, ``no grievance can be made out on the ground that the minimum eligibility marks for their selection in respect of seats earmarked for them should also be the same as that of the fresh or open candidates.''

The Bench, therefore saw ``no discrimination or arbitrariness involved in the special provision made to meet a just and appropriate need in public interest.''

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