BHAGWATI - (1.) THE main judgment in this case was delivered by us on 22/06/1984 (reported in AIR 1984 SC 1420) and we held in that judgment that "wholesale reservation made by some of the State Governments on the basis of 'domicile' or residence requirement within the State or on the basis of institutional preference for students who have passed the qualifying examination held by the University or the State, excluding all students not satisfying this requirement, regardless of merit" was unconstitutional and void as offending the equality clause of the Constitution. But after condemning such wholesale reservation, we proceeded to observe that the very mandate of the equality clauses viewed in the perspective of social justice, would justify some extent of reservation based on residence requirement within the State or on institutional preference for students passing the qualifying examination held by the University or the State and addressing ourselves to the question to what extent such reservation might be regarded as constitutionally permissible, we said : "It is not possible to provide a categorical answer to this question, for as pointed out by the policy statement of the Government of India, the extent of such reservation would depend on several factors including opportunities for professional education in that particular area, the extent of competition, level of education development of the area and other relevant factors. It may be that in a State where the level of educational development is woefully low, there are comparatively inadequate opportunities for training in the medical speciality and there is large scale social and economic backwardness, there may be justification for reservation of a higher percentage of seats in the medical colleges in the State and such higher percentage of seats in the medical colleges in the State may not militate against "the equality mandate viewed in the perspective of social justice". So many variables depending on social and economic facts in the context of educational opportunities would enter into the determination of the question as to what in the case of any particular State, should be the limit of reservation based on residence requirement within the State or on institutional preference. But, in our opinion, 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. THE Medical Education Review Committee had suggested that the outer limit should not exceed 75 per cent but we are of the view that it would be fair and just to fix the outer limit at 70 per cent. We are laying down this outer limit of reservation in an attempt to reconcile the apparently conflicting claims of equality and excellence." We pointed out that in the result at least 30 per cent 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 directed that "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. This was the decision given by us in regard to admissions to the MBBS and BDS Courses. We then proceeded to discuss the question of admissions to post-graduate courses such as M.D. M.S. and the like and taking into account broader considerations of equality of opportunity and institutional continuity in education which has its own value and relevance. we took the view that though residence requirement within the State should not be a ground for reservation in admissions to Post-graduate Courses a certain percentage of seats may be reserved on the basis of institutional preference in the sense that a student who has passed MBBS Course from a Medical College may be given preference for admission to Post-graduate Course in the same Medical College or University, but such reservation on the basis of institutional preference should not in any event exceed 50. per cent of the total number of open seats available for admissions to the Post-graduate Course.
(2.) WE thought that pursuant to this judgment delivered by us, the Government of India and the Indian Medical Council would make the necessary arrangements for holding an All-India Entrance Examination for selection of students so far as the minimum 30 per cent non-reserved seats for the MBBS Course and the minimum 50 Per Cent non-reserved seats for the Post-graduate course were concerned. But, no steps were taken by the Government of India or the Indian Medical Council for holding such an All-India Entrance Examination and we had. therefore, to give a direction to the Indian Medical Council to come forward with a positive scheme for holding All-India Entrance Examination for regulating admissions to the minimum 30 per cent non-reserved seats for the MBBS Course and the minimum 50 Per Cent non-reserved seats for the Post-graduate course, so that admissions to these minimum non-reserved seats may be made on the basis of comparative evaluation of merit of the students through such All-India Entrance Examination. WE also pointed out in a subsequent judgment delivered by us on 1/05/1985 (reported in AIR 1985 SC 1059) that the All-India Entrance Examination should be conducted in at least one centre in each State and that "having regard to the size of the population. the number of students seeking admission and the extent of the geographical area of the State, it might be desirable to have more than one centre in some State or States both in regard to admissions to the Post-graduate courses as also in regard to admissions to the MBBS Course." It seems that pursuant to the directions given by us, a scheme for holding All-India Entrance Examination for admission to the minimum 30 Per Cent non-reserved seats for the MBBS/BDS Course as well as for admission to the minimum 50 Per Cent non-reserved seats for the Post-graduate course was formulated by the Medical Council of India and it was circulated amongst the various State Governments. Some of the State Governments including the University of Bombay put forward certain difficulties in the implementation of the scheme as suggested by the Medical Council of India. WE felt that it was necessary to iron out these difficulties at a representative meeting and hence by an Order made on 16/09/1985. we directed the Government of India Ministry of Health to immediately proceed to convene a meeting of the Deans of the Faculties of Medicine of various Universities in the country and the representatives of the State Governments and of the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India for the purpose of considering the scheme put forward by the Medical Council of India and carrying out such modifications in the scheme as may be expedient and also, if necessary evolving a new scheme. so that the All-India Entrance Examination both for the MBBS and BDS Courses as also for the Post-graduate courses is held in a manner which will cause the least amount of hardship and inconvenience to the students and at the same time, implement the directions in our judgment dated 22/06/1984 (reported in AIR 1084 SC 1420) as modified by the subsequent judgment dated 1/05/1985 (reported in AIR 1985 SC 1059). WE also directed that this meeting shall be convened by the Ministry of Health. Government of India within one month and a detailed scheme for the All-India Entrance Examination for the MBBS/BDS and Postgraduate Courses shall be submitted before the next date of hearing of the writ petitions. WE also gave a direction that "the meeting will ... consider whether the All-India Entrance Examination should be held by the Medical Council of India or by any other appropriate authority or body to be set up for that purpose" and "the meeting will evolve a common syllabus for the All-India Entrance Examination and will also work out the financial aspects of holding an All-India Entrance Examination". The Government of India was directed to provide the necessary finances for the purpose of holding the All-India Entrance Examination. Pursuant to this direction given by us in our Order dated 16/09/1985, a meeting was convened by the Ministry of Health, Government of India for considering the scheme prepared by the Medical Council of India for holding All-India Entrance Examination for the MBBS/BDS and Postgraduate courses and this meeting was attended by the Deans of Medical Faculties of various Universities, Health Secretaries of various State Governments, the representatives of the Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, National Board of Examinations. National Academy of Medical Sciences and Central Board of Secondary Education and at this meeting the representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Law were also invited to express their opinion. The scheme submitted by the Medical Council of India and circulated amongst various State Governments and Deans of Medical Faculties and others was considered at length at this meeting and in the light of the discussions held at the meeting, the scheme was modified and redrafted and the scheme so modified and redrafted was submitted by the Government of India to the Court for acceptance along with a Memorandum setting out the revised scheme as Annexure III and pointing out certain difficulties set forth by some of the participants. The learned counsel for various State Governments appeared before the Court when the revised scheme was taken up for consideration and they made their submissions pleading for certain changes in the scheme. We shall proceed to consider these submissions and deal with them. The first objection raised on behalf of some of the State Governments was in regard to the language in which the All-India Entrance Examination should be held for admission to minimum 30 Per Cent non-reserved seats for the MBBS/BDS course and minimum 50 Per Cent non-reserved seats for the Post-graduate courses. The Medical Council of India in the revised scheme suggested that the All-India Entrance Examination should be held in the English language but it was contended on behalf of some of the State Governments that it should be held in the regional languages and some of the State Governments in the Hindi belt submitted that an option should be given to the students to answer the question papers either in English or in Hindi. We are afraid we cannot accede to this suggestion made on behalf of some of the State Governments. We do not think that at the present stage it would at all be practicable to hold the All-India Entrance Examination in any language other than English. The medium of instruction in the MBBS/BDS course as also in the post-graduate courses in all Medical Colleges and institutions in the country is English. The statutory regulations of the Medical Council of India in regard to under-graduate medical education also prescribe that the medium of instruction for the MBBS course shall be English. Moreover. there would be immense practical and logistic difficulties in holding the All-India Entrance Examination in different regional languages which are many and varied and if only Hindi is allowed as an alternative language in which the All-India Entrance Examination may be held, there would be vehement opposition from some of the States whose regional language is other than Hindi and they would insist that the All-India Entrance Examination should also be held in their respective regional languages. Of course. we do recognise that in Order to strengthen the unity and integrity of the country and promote mobility from one State to another and to avoid creating a situation where an Indian from one State will be a stranger in another State it is necessary that there should be one common language which should operate as a link language and particularly men in public life, professionals, intellectuals, academics and the like should know such link language and some day, hopefully, with the consensus of the people, Hindi might become such link language, but as the matter stands today since the medium of instruction in the MBBS/BDS Course and Post-graduate Courses is English and the entire medical education is being imparted in the English language throughout the country and it is not practically feasible to hold the All-India Entrance Examination in diverse regional languages, we are of the view that for the present at least, the All-India Entrance Examination should be held in the English language. We do not think that even for students who have passed the qualifying examination with regional language as their medium of instruction there would be any difficulty in facing the examination because they are bound to have some knowledge of English as a language of comprehension, for otherwise they would not be able to pursue the medical course in English language and moreover the All-India Entrance Examination being an objective test, it would not require close familiarity with the English language.
(3.) ANOTHER objection raised on behalf of some of the State Governments and particularly the State of Tamil Nadu related to the following suggestion made in the Scheme submitted by the Government of India : "It was felt that the judgment of the Supreme Court by which 30 Per Cent of the open seats for admission to MBBS/BDS courses were to be arrived at after taking into account the reservations validly made (which term has not been defined) provides enough scope to the State Governments to increase the number of reserved categories, thereby contributing lesser number of seats for being filled on All-India basis." The objection raised by these State Governments was twofold. Firstly, it was contended that the suggestion that 15 Per Cent of the total seats available for admission to MBBS/BDS course without taking into account any reservations which may be made by the State Government, would tend to produce inequality of opportunity for admission to students in different States since the percentage of reservations varied from State to State and secondly, it was urged that the proposal of the Government of India that valid reservations should not exceed 50 Per Cent of the total number of seats available for admission, will reduce the opportunities which were at present available to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes as a result of reservations exceeding 50 Per Cent of the total seats made in some of the States and particularly in the State of Tamil Nadu where the reservations exceeded 68 Per Cent . We agree with the second objection raised on behalf of some of the State Governments but so far as the first objection is concerned, we do not think it is well-founded. There can be no doubt that if in each State, 30 Per Cent of the seats were to be made available for admission on the basis of All-India Entrance Examination after taking into account reservations validly made, the number of seats which would be available for admission on the basis of All-India Entrance Examination would vary inversely with the percentage of reservations validly made in that State. If the percentage of reservations is high as in the State of Tamil Nadu or the State of Karnataka, the number of seats available for admission on the basis of All-India Entrance Examination would be relatively less than what would be in a State where the percentage of reservations is low. There would thus be total inequality in the matter of making available seats for admission on the basis of All-India Entrance Examination. It would be open to a State Government to reduce the number of seats available for admission on the basis of All-India Entrance Examination by increasing the number of reserved categories or by increasing the percentage of reservations. We therefore agree with the Government of India that the formula adopted by us in our main judgment dated 22/06/1984 for determining the number of seats which should be made available for admission on the basis of All-India Entrance Examination should be changed. We would direct, in accordance with the suggestion made in the Scheme by the Government of India, that not less than 15 Per Cent of the total number of seats in each medical college or institution, without taking into account any reservations validly made, shall be filled on the basis of All-India Entrance Examination. This new formula is in our opinion fair and just and brings about real equality of opportunity in admissions to the MBBS/BDS course without placing the students in one State in an advantageous or disadvantageous position as compared to the students in another State. The same formula must apply also in regard to admissions to the Post-graduate Courses and instead of making available for admission on All-India basis 50 Per Cent of the open seats after taking into account reservations validly made, we would direct that not less than 25 Per Cent of the total number of seats without taking into account any reservations, shall be made available for being filled on the basis of All-India Entrance Examination. This suggestion of the Government of India deserves to be accepted and the objection to it must be overruled. But so far as the second objection is concerned, we think there is merit in it. We do not think that it would be right for us to limit the reservations which can be validly made by a State Government in the matter of admission to the MBBS/BDS Course and the Postgraduate Course to 50 Per Cent of the total number of seats. There are some States like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka which have reservations far exceeding 50 Per Cent in admissions to MBBS/BDS Course and we do not propose to restrict such reservations to 50 Per Cent . When we say that we do not propose to limit the percentage of reservations to 50 as suggested by the Government of India we should not be understood as laying down that the State Government may make reservations to any extent it likes or that the percentage of reservations can validly exceed 50 without violating any constitutional guarantees. We are not going into this question because it does not directly arise for determination in this case. We may however point out that there is a considerable body of opinion in favour of the view that too large a percentage of reservations has the effect of not only stifling the opportunities of really brilliant students who do not belong to the reserved categories and creating a certain amount of frustration leading to class antagonism but also prejudicially affecting the quality and efficiency of the medical services available to the people, particularly in the field of higher medical education such as the post-graduate courses. There is on the other hand an equally powerful lobby which holds that reservations must be made in proportion to the population of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes, because these classes of people have been subjected to oppression and exploitation and have been deprived of all opportunities of education and advancement since a long time and unless reservations are made in their favour and they are given proper opportunities by a process of reverse discrimination, they will never be able to take their place in society on an equal footing with others and it is only by wiping out injustice which has been done to them for long long years, by making reservations in their favour that we shall be able to build a truly egalitarian society. It is the firm belief of those who propound this view that the theory that reservations carried beyond a certain limit affect the quality and efficiency of the medical services is nothing but an elitist myth which is put forward in order to perpetuate the vested interests. These rival arguments raise an interesting question of social policy which may have to be decided by this Court at some future point of time but we do not think that in the context of the present case it would be right for us to enter upon a consideration of this question.;