Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 23: High Court today permitted the Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) to conduct counseling for MD/MS/PG and Diploma Courses.
The High Court also dismissed the petitions filed by Dr Abdul Hamid, Dr Mohd Ashraf Bhat and Others, who were aggrieved of their exclusion from the list of candidates issued by BOPEE for counseling/admission to the MD/MS/PG and Diploma Courses.
Their claim was that having served for a minimum period of 5 years in rural areas, they belong to, and constitute, a reserved category and, therefore, were required to obtain only 40% minimum qualifying marks in the Entrance Test, not 50% minimum marks as prescribed in respect of the candidates belonging to the Open Merit Category.
Stating that BOPEE has applied to them the standard as applicable to Open Merit Category candidates and prepared the select list on that basis, they prayed for directions to the BOPEE for selecting them for counselling and admittance to said course.
Pointing towards the submission of counsel for the BOPEE that BOPEE has been committing a serious wrong but this time it has taken the right decision in accordance with the mandate of the Rules governing the subject, Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey remarked, “what can this court say about the conduct of the BOPEE? Every time a judicial peep is made into its functioning, jets of stink shoot out of it? However, no wrong, irrespective of the number of times it is repeated, can attain the status of being right”.
“Consequently, it cannot be sought to be perpetuated on the ground of equal treatment. Law on the point is well settled. Reference in this connection may be made to the judgment of the Supreme Court in Union of India v. International Trading Co”, the High Court said.
“This court is of the considered view that the candidates belonging to the petitioners category—the Medical Graduates, who have rendered five years’ service in rural areas, cannot be equated with the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes and, therefore, they cannot claim application of the minimum percentage of marks”, Justice Magrey said.
Dismissing writ petitions along with connected CMPs, Justice Magrey ordered, “interim direction or restriction, if any, subsisting, shall stand vacated and lifted. The respondent-BOPEE shall be free to proceed ahead with the counselling process”.
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