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―5. We would also like to clear up one misunderstanding which seems to prevail with some State Governments and universities in regard to the true import of our Judgment dated June 22, 1984. They have misinterpreted our Judgment to mean that 30% of the total number of seats available for admission to MBBS course in a medical college should be kept free from reservation on the basis of residence requirement or institutional preference. That is a total misreading of our Judgment. What we have said in our Judgment is that after providing for reservation validly made, whatever seats remain available for non-reserved categories, 30% of such seats at the least, should be left free for open competition and admission to such 30% open seats should not be based on residence requirement or institutional preference but students from all over the country should be able to compete for admissions to such 30% open seats. To take an example, suppose there are 100 seats in a radical college or university and 30% of the seats are validly reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. That would leave 70 seats available for others belonging to non- reserved categories. According to our Judgment, 30% of 70 seats, that is, 21 seats out of 70 and not 30% of the total number of 100 seats, namely, 30 seats, must be filled up by open competition regardless of residence requirement or institutional preference.‖ PART D 37 Pursuant to the directions given by the Bench in Dinesh Kumar (I) (supra), the Medical Council of India formulated a scheme for holding an all- India medical entrance examination for admission to the AIQ seats in UG and PG. However, difficulties arose in the implementation of the scheme. This Court thought it necessary to iron out the creases and by an order dated 16 September 1985, directed the Government of India, in the Ministry of Health to convene a meeting of the Deans of Medical colleges, representatives of the Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India. A revised scheme was formulated and submitted to this Court for approval. Various State Governments raised objections to the revised scheme before a two-Judge Bench in Dinesh Kumar (II) v. Motilal Nehru Medical College55. The State of Tamil Nadu submitted that since the total percentage of reservation varies in different States, if the AIQ seats are calculated after deducting the seats in which reservations are validly made, the total AIQ seats in a medical college in the State would be inversely proportional to the percentage of reservation in the State. This Court addressed this submission and observed that it would then be open to the State Governments to reduce the number of seats available in the AIQ by increasing the percentage of reservation in the State. Therefore, this Court altered the formula for seat matrix adopted in Pradeep Jain (supra) and clarified in Dinesh Kumar (I) (supra). This Court held that for UG, 15 percent of the total seats in each medical college or institution shall be demarcated for AIQ (as per the revised scheme of the Central Government), without taking into account any reservation validly made. For PG, it 1986 (3) SCC 727 PART D was held that 25 percent of the total seats would be reserved for the AIQ, without taking into account reservation validly made. It was observed:
2. Thereafter in Dinesh Kumar (Dr.) v. Motilal Nehru Medical College [(1985) 3 SCC 22] , it was explained:
(SCC p. 28, para 5) ―5. … That is a total misreading of our judgment. What we have said in our judgment is that after providing for reservation validly made, whatever seats remain available for non-reserved categories, 30% of such seats at the least, should be left free for open competition and admission to such 30% open seats should not be based on residence requirement or institutional preference but students from all over the country should be able to compete for admissions to such 30% open seats. To take an example, suppose there are 100 seats in a medical college or university and 30% of the seats are validly reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. That would leave 70 seats available for others belonging to non-reserved categories. According to our judgment, 30% of 70% seats, that is, 21 seats out of 70 and not 30% of the total number of 100 seats, namely, 30 seats, must be filled up by open competition regardless of residence requirement or institutional preference.‖

Even the Medical Council of India has not followed strict adherence to the rule of reservation policy in admission for SC/ST category at the postgraduate level.‖ 44 Having traced the evolution of the AIQ in UG and PG medical and dental courses, we answer the following questions: (i) whether this Court in Pradeep Jain (supra) held that the AIQ seats that were to be filled by an open all- India examination should be free of reservation for the socially and educationally backward classes, and SC and ST as enabled by Article 15(4); and (ii) whether reservation in the AIQ can be provided only pursuant to a direction of this Court. 45 This Court in Pradeep Jain (supra) was deciding on the constitutional validity of reservation based on domicile/residence. Having held that residence- based reservation is constitutionally valid, the next question that this Court was tasked with was adjudicating the quantum of residence-based reservation that could be permitted. Referring to the decision of this Court in Jagdish Saran v. Union of India60, it was held that there cannot be wholesale reservation (that is, 100 percent reservation). It was observed that a certain percentage of seats must be filled by open merit by an all-India examination without reservation based on residence. The Medical Education Review Committee had suggested that 75 percent of the seats in a medical college shall be reserved for residents of the State. This Court decided that it would be fair to reserve 70 percent of the seats 1980 AIR 820 PART D for residents of the State. Therefore, 30 percent of the seats were to be filled through an all-India Examination. This would mean that candidates from all across the country could compete against the 30 percent seats available in State- run medical colleges. In this context, this Court had observed, ―such reservation should in no event exceed the outer limit of 70 per cent of the total number of open seats after taking into account other kinds of reservations validly made‖ (paragraph 21). The Bench further observed that ―at least 30 percent of the open seats shall be available for admission of students on all-India basis irrespective of the State or University from which they come and such admissions shall be granted purely on merit on the basis of either all-India entrance examination or entrance examination to be held by the State‖ (paragraph 21). The observation of this Court that AIQ seats must be filled purely on the basis of merit, cannot be interpreted to mean that there shall be no reservations in the AIQ seats. As noted in Section D.1 of this judgement, merit must be socially contextualised and reconceptualized according to its distributive consequences where it furthers substantive equality in terms of Articles 15 (4) and 15 (5) of the Constitution. The reference to merit in paragraph 21 of the judgment must be read with the previous observations made in the judgment. Identifying the issue before this Court, Justice PN Bhagwati writing for a three-judge Bench formulated the following question:

reserved seats, and the seats remaining in the open category must be bifurcated into State Quota and AIQ. It was thus, a three-fold vertical reservation, with the reserved category not being considered within either the AIQ or the State Quota. The logical fallacy of this method of demarcation of seats is that different States provide varying percentages of reservation. Therefore, the total percentage of unreserved seats would inversely depend on the percentage of reservation provided by the State. The State of Tamil Nadu raised this objection in Dinesh PART D Kumar (II) (supra). Pursuant to this, it was held that the AIQ seats shall be determined without excluding any reservation validly made. The seats were first bifurcated to State quota and AIQ, and the vertical and horizontal reservations (for example, for persons with disabilities) were accommodated within the State quota. The revised seat matrix is graphically represented below: