Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 8: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur today dismissed all the LPAs filed by doctors seeking quashing of counseling schedule dated 05.04.2015 for provisional admission to PG/MS/PG Diploma and MD Courses and direction to select the appellants under the Rural Service Category as a reservation category by applying 40% qualifying marks in the Entrance Examination for admission to MS/MD/PG Medical Courses.
After hearing Senior Advocate ZA Shah with Advocate A Hanan for the appellants whereas Advocate G A Lone appearing for the BOPEE, the DB observed, “the candidates other than Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes, must secure 50% marks in the Entrance Examination for qualifying themselves for admission to the PG Degree/Diploma in Medical Courses”.
“The short point arises for consideration in these appeals is as to whether the appellants are justified in contending that their minimum marks in written test (eligibility) should be fixed as 40% for admission to PG degree/ diploma in medical courses for 2015-16 and it is not in dispute that the appellants are not claiming the benefit of reservation either under SC/ST/OBC”, the DB said, adding “all the appellants are rural service candidates having obtained certificates from the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare and they have also applied for admission to the seats allocated under the open merit category, namely, 65% and rural service candidates (10%)”.
“Admittedly the appellants have not secured 50% and above marks in the qualifying written examination. The grievance as focused by senior counsel appearing for the appellants is that the appellants having applied also for 10% of the seats under Rural Service Candidates which is titled as one of the reserved categories in terms of the prospects, the minimum marks prescribed for reserved categories, namely, 40%, alone can be taken as a criteria for their provisional selection”, the DB observed.
“As per note III of clause-6, the category wise distribution of seats is also mentioned which states that 65% (177 seats) are reserved for open merit category and 35% (94 seats) are reserved for reserved categories, of which 10% comes to Rule 13 to 16 of the Jammu & Kashmir Reservation Rules, 2005”, the DB said.
With these observations, Division Bench held that the candidates other than Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes, must secure 50% marks in the Entrance Examination for qualifying themselves for admission to the PG Degree/Diploma in Medical Courses. Accordingly, the DB upheld the decision of the Single Judge.
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