Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Union Of India vs Sreenarayana Institute Of Medical ... on 28 September, 2016
Bench: A.K. Sikri, L. Nageswara Rao
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9862 OF 2016
(Arising out of SLP (C) No. 27921 of 2016)
UNION OF INDIA ... Appellant
VERSUS
SREENARAYANA INSTITUTE OF
MEDICAL SCIENCES REP. BY
ITS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND ORS. ... Respondents
O R D E R
Leave granted.
We have heard the learned counsel for the parties finally.
This appeal is filed against the interim order dated 26.08.2016 passed by the High Court of Kerala in a batch of writ petitions. Though as many as five writ petitions were filed, the appellant-Union of India has filed the instant appeal challenging the impugned order only in one case. Be that as it may, learned Solicitor General appearing for the appellant submits that the main grievance of the Union of India is in respect of Condition No. 1 in paragraph No. 10 of the impugned order which reads as under: -
“(i) Admissions to the MBBS/BDS Courses shall be only on the basis of the ranking of candidates in the rank list of NEET, 2016, on the basis of the inter-se Signature Not Verified merit among the candidates, who have applied to the respective colleges” Digitally signed by NIDHI AHUJA Date: 2016.09.29 14:37:18 IST Reason: 1 C.A. No. 9862/2016 It is the submission of the learned Solicitor General that once NEET has been reintroduced and All India Entrance Test on that basis has been conducted, there could not have been any counseling by the colleges individually and it had to be centralised counseling.
On behalf of the respondents, we are informed that Section 3 of The Kerala Professional Colleges or Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-Exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence in Professional Education) Act, 2006, has been declared unconstitutional and struck down by the High Court of Kerala and though appeal against that judgment is pending, i.e., Civil Appeal No. 2849 of 2008 and batch, no stay has been granted in the said case. We are also informed that pursuant to the impugned order dated 26.08.2016 passed by the High Court, the private unaided medical institutions in the State of Kerala have already admitted students and admission process is over. This was done under the supervision of the Admission Supervising Committee which is a statutory authority and headed by a retired High Court Judge. A direction to this effect is contained in the impugned order of the High Court itself. More importantly, we are informed that the process of admission was undertaken by most of the colleges, including the five writ petitioners, after arriving at an agreement with the Government of Kerala. As per that 2 C.A. No. 9862/2016 agreement 50 per cent of the seats were allowed to be filled up by the Government of Kerala.
Having regard to the aforesaid facts as stated by the learned Solicitor General as well as the counsel for the respondents, we set aside that part of Condition No. 1 wherein the respective colleges are allowed to conduct the counseling and admit the students without going into the merits.
This issue shall be finally thrashed out and decided by the High Court in the writ petitions which are pending before it. However, we are not inclined to interfere with the admissions of students which have been done by the respective colleges as these are done after reaching arrangement with the State Government. In that behalf, the conditions which are mentioned in the impugned order shall continue to apply.
The appeal stands disposed of in the aforesaid terms.
....................., J.
[ A.K. SIKRI ] ....................., J.
[ L. NAGESWARA RAO ] New Delhi;
September 28, 2016.
3 C.A. No. 9862/2016 ITEM NO.301(3) COURT NO.11 SECTION XIA S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No. 27921/2016 (Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 26/08/2016 in WP No. 28414/2016 passed by the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam) UNION OF INDIA Petitioner(s) VERSUS SREENARAYANA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES REP. BY ITS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND ORS. Respondent(s) (With appln(s) for exemption from filing c/c of the impugned judgment, interim relief and office report) Date : 28/09/2016 This petition was called on for hearing today. CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A.K. SIKRI HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE L. NAGESWARA RAO For Petitioner(s) Mr. Ranjit Kumar, SG. Mr. D. S. Mahra, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. C. U. Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Varun Mudgal, Adv. Mr. Subham Singh, Adv. Mr. Rishi K. S. Gautam, Adv. Mr. Dhaval Mehrotra, Adv. Mr. Romy Chacho, Adv.
Mr. K. K. Venugopal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Nillu Dhandapani, Adv. Ms. Shradha Deshmukh, Adv. Ms. Liz Mathew, Adv.
Mr. M. F. Philip, Adv.
State of Kerala Mr. Jaideep Gupta, Sr. Adv.
Mr. G. Prakash, Adv.
Mr. Jishnu M. L., Adv. Ms. Priyanka Prakash, Adv. Ms. Beena Prakash, Adv.4 C.A. No. 9862/2016
Mr. Manuy Srinath, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Leave granted.
The appeal stands disposed of in terms of the signed order.
All pending applications stand disposed of.
(Nidhi Ahuja) (Tapan Kr. Chakraborty)
Court Master Court Master
[Signed order is placed on the file.] 5