Telangana High Court
Dr. Dinesh Kumar And 3 Others vs The State Of Telangana And 3 Others on 12 October, 2022
Author: Abhinand Kumar Shavili
Bench: Abhinand Kumar Shavili
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HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE ABHINAND KUMAR SHAVILI
AND
HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE NAMAVARAPU RAJESHWAR RAO
W.P.Nos.37936, 37940, 38042 & 38043 of 2022
COMMON ORDER:(Per Hon'ble Sri Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili) Since the issue involved in all these writ petitions is one and same, they are being heard together and disposed of by way of this common order.
Heard Sri Sandeep Reddy Sama and Sri Bommineni Vivekanada, learned counsel for the petitioners, learned Advocate General appearing for respondent No. 1, Sri A. Prabhakar Rao, learned Standing Counsel for respondent No.2, Smt Rachana Waddepalli, learned Standing Counsel appearing for respondent No.3 and Sri M.Srinivas Rao, learned counsel appearing for the impleaded respondents.
It is the case of the petitioners that all of them are working as Specialist Doctors in Vaidhya Vidhana Parishad/Civil Assistant Surgeons in Insurance Medical Service Department and they have put 2 in 2 to 4 years of service in Tribal areas/Rural areas. While so, the State Government has taken a policy decision vide G.O.Ms.No.155, dated 18.11.2021, wherein the State Government has created an opportunity to the in-service Doctors to acquire Post Graduation qualification and certain number of seats were reserved under service quota. As per the said policy, certain eligibility criteria was fixed for in- service Doctors and the regular service Doctors, who have put in two or more years of service in Tribal area/three or more years of service in Rural area/six or more years of service in other areas are eligible for service quota reservation. If an in-service Doctors render two years of service in Tribal area or in an institution recognized by the Government of Telangana, they are entitled for reservation in PG Medical Admissions and having three years of service in Rural areas are eligible for reservation in PG courses and if a person has not worked in Tribal/Rural area, then, he must have six years of service to avail the service reservation. The Vaidhya Vidhana Parishad/Insurance Medical Services Department have issued service certificates vouching 3 that the petitioners have to submit service certificate to show that they are working in Tribal area/Rural area. In pursuance of the said notification, the petitioners have applied for admission into Post Graduate Medical Courses and Kaloji Narayana Rao University has referred the certificates issued by Vaidhaya Vidhana Parishad and Insurance Medical Service Department to the competent authority and the competent authority expressed its opinion saying that the certificates produced by the petitioners are not valid as the petitioners have not put in six years of service so as to avail in-service quota in the Post Graduate Medical Courses. When the policy of the State Government makes it abundantly clear that the persons, who have put in two years of service in Tribal area, three years of service in Rural area or six years of service in other areas, the same treatment should have been extended in favour of the petitioners. The eligibility criteria for in-service candidates is enumerated in Clause VI of G.O.Ms.No.155, dated 18.11.2021, which reads as under: 4
"ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR IN-SERVICE CANDIDATES:-
i. The regular service candidates who have put in 2 years or more of service in tribal area/3 years or more of service in rural area/6 years or more of service in other areas are eligible for service quota reservation.
ii. The candidates should have qualified in the NEET-PG examination as per the cut-off marks prescribed for different categories to be eligible for service quota reservations.
iii. Temporary/contract/out sourcing candidates are not eligible for service quota reservations.
iv. It is further clarified that in-service candidate means a candidate who has put in:
a. Two years of continuous regular tribal service:
i. Tribal service means service in tribal institutions recognized by the Government of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
b. Three years of continuous regular rural service:
i. Rural service means service in Primary Health Centres, Subsidiary Health Centres, Dispensaries, Taluk Hospitals, Mobile Medical Units, Leprosy Control Units or the sample survey-cum-Assessment units, under Leprosy Temporary hospitalization wards situated in Taluks and Leprosy Training Centre at Pogiri (G.O.Ms.No. 31 HM & FW (B2) Department, Dated: 11-2-1997).
c. Six years of continuous regular service:
i. Continuous regular service means regular services in the State of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the following services:
1. Directorate of Medical Education.
2. Directorate of Public Health & Family Welfare.
3. Vaidhya Vidhana Parishad 5
4. Insurance Medical Service.
5. Singareni Collieries.
6. Any other service notified by Government of Telangana.
v. The candidates should serve in a Government institutions as per the orders of State Government after completion of the course for a period of 10 years.
vi. The candidates should have minimum left over service of 8 years of admission into PG degree and 7 years for PG diploma courses to be eligible for grant of study leave as service candidate. The cut-off date for calculation of left-over service will be notified by the University.
vii. All persons seeking admission as in-service candidates shall submit applications online with details of service rendered by them in prescribed proforma, along with other certificates. The certificates have to be uploaded online.
viii. Candidates shall submit eligibility service certificate issued only by the concerned Director of Medical Education, Director of Public Health & Family Welfare, the Director, Insurance Medical Services, the Commissioner, Vaidya Vidhana Parishad and other competent authority as notified by the Government, in the prescribed format appended to application at the time of online applications. Applications of the candidates who have not submitted the certificate from the respective Heads of the Department at the time of counseling or selection shall not be considered.
ix. Grant of study leave to in-service candidates selected for PG degree under service quota course shall be restricted to 3 years. x. If in-service candidate is selected under Service Quota for PG diploma course; the candidate will be given study leave for a period of 2 years.
xi. The candidates selected to prosecute postgraduate courses shall be sanctioned study leave for not more than one course i.e. either postgraduate degree or postgraduate diploma during his service. 6 xii. In service candidate shall join the course on or before the commencement of the course after getting relieved from the concerned Head of the Institution. The Heads of the Medical Institution shall relieve them if they apply for relief enclosing a copy of the selection and allotment order issued by the Chairman, admission committee."
Further, a perusal of clause IV (c) (i) itself clarified that the services in Vaidhya Vidhana Parishad and Insurance Medical Services can be taken as continuous regular service in the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. When it has been clearly spelt out in the policy itself, it is not appropriate for the verifying authority to reject the cases of the petitioners on the ground that the petitioners have not put in six years of service. The competent authority is trying to read clause IV ( c ) only as applicable and rejected the case of the petitioners. Rule VI Sub-Rule IV( c) (1) has to be read for entirety and it should be applicable even for ABC of Special Rules.
Learned counsel appearing for the petitioners had contended that appropriate orders be passed in these writ petitions directing the competent authority to re-verify the service of the petitioners and extend the benefit of Rural service/Tribal service in favour of the petitioners and permit the petitioners to participate in the web counseling as this Court has stayed all further proceedings by way of interim order, dated 06.10.2022. 7
Learned Advocate General appearing for the 1st respondent, on instructions, has clarified that the persons, who are working in Vaidhya Vidhana Parishad/Insurance Medical Services, are also entitled for the Tribal service/Rural service and if they have put in two years of service in Tribal area and three years of service in Rural area, their cases can also be considered. Learned Advocate General had submitted that the petitioners are entitled for the benefit of Tribal as well as Rural service.
Learned Standing Counsel appearing for the 2nd respondent- University had contended that since the State has clarified that the petitioners are entitled for the benefit of Tribal service and Rural service, the cases of the petitioners would be referred to the competent authority and let the competent authority verify the institutions where the petitioners have worked and on verification, let the competent authority re-submit the eligibility criteria of the petitioners and upon re-submitting, the cases of the petitioners would be considered for admission into Post Graduation Medical Courses in pursuance of NEET-PG-2022.
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Learned counsel appearing for the impleaded respondents had contended that the impleaded respondents are working in the Government Hospitals and if the employees of Vaidhya Vidhana Parishad and Insurance Medical Services are permitted to avail the benefit of Tribal service and Rural service, the chance of candidates of in-service will be severely affected. Learned counsel had drawn our attention to Clause VI of G.O.Ms.No.155, dated 18.11.2021 and contended that only institutions which were recognized by Government of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are extended the benefit of in-service quota. Let the competent authority verify whether the petitioners' institutions are recognized by the State Government or not.
Having considered the rival submissions made by the learned counsel on either side, this Court is of the view that all the writ petitions can be disposed of directing the competent authority to re-verify the institutions where the petitioners have worked and give a categorical finding whether the said institutions are recognized by the State of Telangana. If the competent authority examines the cases of the petitioners and re-submit eligibility criteria by duly taking into account that the petitioners are entitled 9 to the benefit of Tribal as well as Rural service as per the clarification and written instructions of respondent No.1 and upon such re-submission of the eligibility certificates issued by the competent authority, the 2nd respondent-University shall permit the petitioners to participate in the admission counseling and submit their web options under in-service quota. If the petitioners are coming within the zone of consideration for admission into Post Graduate Medical Courses, the University shall permit them to participate in the web options and also consider their case for admission into Post Graduation Medical admissions. The entire exercise shall be completed within a period of one week from today.
Accordingly, all the writ petitions are disposed of. No costs. Miscellaneous petitions pending, if any, shall stand closed.
_____________________________________ JUSTICE ABHINAND KUMAR SHAVILI 10 ________________________________________ JUSTICE NAMAVARAPU RAJESHWAR RAO Date: 12.10.2022 Myk/rkk