E-Paper
MBBS admissions: Supreme Court notice on plea against criterion change by GMCH-32
On July 15, UT came out with a notification restricting the defence personnel benefits only to those who had permanent residences in Chandigarh at the time of entry into service; such a harsh condition made the concession to wards of defence wards as purposeless and nugatory, because a defence personnel belonged to whole of the country and he ought to be given the option of choosing at least one state quota as per his choice, it was argued
The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday issued notice on a plea challenging the alleged last minute change in criteria for MBBS admissions at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH- 32), Chandigarh.
The bench, headed by Justice Dr DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli, has sought response from the Chandigarh administration by October 21 on a plea from one, Ananya Goswami.
The petitioner’s counsel, Amar Vivek Aggarwal had submitted that all through since the year 1992, the Chandigarh administration has been following Centre’s directives and granting the waiver of domiciliary conditions to category of wards of defence personnel. It did not mandate them to pass 10+2 from Chandigarh schools and have been treating them as UT pool candidates against 85% admission quota. The Chandigarh administration had itself framed a scheme in September 2007, giving special consideration to defence personnel’s wards.
On July 15, UT came out with a notification restricting the defence personnel benefits only to those who had permanent residences in Chandigarh at the time of entry into service.
Such a harsh condition made the concession to wards of defence wards as purposeless and nugatory, because a defence personnel belonged to whole of the country and he ought to be given the option of choosing at least one state quota as per his choice, it was argued, adding that in the case in hand, the petitioner was preparing herself for MBBS since 2018. However, rules of game have been changed mid-stream in July 2022, when last cut-off date for NEET is already over.
The Chandigarh administration is granting defence personnel waiver of domiciliary conditions in all other courses and streams of education, including educational colleges in Chandigarh, architecture, engineering, home science etc., but only in GMCH 32, this waiver has belatedly been withdrawn, which is discriminatory, it was further argued. The petitioner approached SC, after a division bench declined interim relief of provisional participation in counselling to petitioner on October 12.
