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In these appeals, we are concerned only with the
medical education; the Government had to face a serious
problem with the coming up of medical colleges which started
growing like mushrooms and were charging huge capitation
fees to make substantial profits without providing proper
medical education and caring precious little for achieving
excellence of standards in medical education which, if
denuded of such standards, would pose a serious health
hazard to the people. Surely, we would not wish that people
who could ill-afford to go in for well equipped expensive
medical practitioners should be thrown at the mercy of
quacks. Similar situation arose in technical, engineering
and other kinds of institutions but we would concentrate on
the feature and facets of medical education which alone
forms the subject-matter of these appeals. We have seen from
our experience that each year there is a huge rush for
admission to seats in medical colleges for various courses,
which being rather few and insufficient to control or absorb
all sorts and kinds of candidates as the well-known Persian
proverb "JAYE TANG AST WA MARDUMA BISYAR" (i.e. little space
and people many) seems aptly to apply in such a situation.
However, in order to meet the
contingency resulting from a heavy rush for admissions the
institutions set up certain standards or tests which had to
be complied with before candidates could be admitted. Here
also, as in other spheres, favouritism and nepotism have
their own role to play as a result of which merits suffer.
In order to meet these contingencies and ward off such
evils, the Government through its circulars and the Medical
Council of India being alive to this delicate and difficult
problem sought to solve the problem by making rules and
regulations for admission of candidates to various courses
in different disciplines (subjects) to achieve excellence in
medical standards keeping in view statutory and
constitutional reservations. Unfortunately, however, these
rules were often flouted and observed more in breach than in
compliance by those who were in charge of the medical
education: the result was again a huge spurt of writ
petitions in the High Court to weed out the inefficient and
ineligible and absorb the efficient and eligible,
With this short prelude, now to the facts of the case
which disclose a sad story indeed-not because those in
charge of the institutions commit errors but because the
courts start directing the authorities to grant provisional
admissions to students even if they did not deserve the same
in some cases. Experience has shown that in view of the huge
accumulation of arrears in courts, it takes a long time for
the petitions to be disposed of, hence we have evolved the
practice of forcing the authorities to grant provisional
admissions which has resulted in a piquant and pungent
situation because by the time the case comes up for hearing,
the rejected candidates having completed their course and
having appeared at the examination with every hope of
success become eligible for admission to the higher course
in case of success though the Court may ultimately find that
their initial rejection was justified. Such a situation
becomes a sort of a fait accompli for those in charge of the
institutions as a result of which the candidates are
admitted in due deference to the desire of the court by
increasing or creating vacancies even in the absence of
suitable and proper facilities to train the extra
candidates. This results in an anathema and a dilemma for
which there is hardly any remedy. The present cases are a
clear illustration of this problem Our suggestions,
therefore, is that whenever a writ petition is filed
provisional admission should not be given as a matter of
course on the petition being admitted unless the court is
fully satisfied that the petitioner has a cast-iron case
which is bound to succeed or the error is so gross or
apparent that no other conclusion is possible. In order,
however, to test this fact even a short notice may be given
to
explore as to what the other side has to say and thereafter
if the court is satisfied that there is strong prima facie
case and the matter needs thorough examination, provisional
admission may be given. We hope and trust that the High
Courts would in future discontinue the practice of lightly
granting provisional admission to the candidates at the time
of regular admissions, as observed above. It is needless to
state that this Court on its part would also be extremely
reluctant to grant provisional admission and would do so
only in a very special case. The fundamental reason for this
is that otherwise the institutions are likely to become
overcrowded by candidates, eligible or ineligible, efficient
or inefficient. Unless the Institutions can provide complete
and full facilities for the training of each candidate who
is admitted in the various disciplines, the medical
education will be incomplete and the universities would be
turning out Doctors not fully qualified which would
adversely affect the health of the people in general.