- (1.) B. D. Agrawal, J. This is a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution. The petitioner Atul Kumar Singh was a candidate in the Combined Pre-Medical Test, 1982, conducted by the Kanpur University. He is son of Dr. S. R. Singh, Principal, Motilal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad. Dr. Singh is also an officer in the Territorial Army holding the rank of Lt. Colonel. In the application made in the prescribed form the petitioner claimed benefit of reservation under category of "children of present or ex-Army personnel (Male)". There was reservation of one seat in this category in the Medical College, Allahabad and two seats in K. G. Medical College, Lucknow. The preference indicated by the petitioner was for M. B. B. S. ; B. D. S. and B. H. M. S. (Homeopathy) in that Order and in respect of institutions his first choice was for Medical College, Allahabad. In the application the petitioner gave his address as under : "s/- Dr. S. R. Singh, R/o 1, Professor's Residence, M. L. N. Medical College, Allahabad. "
(2.) THE application submitted by the petitioner also contained a certificate in Form IV-A from the Registrar General Hospital, Territorial Army, Allahabad (countersigned by the District Magistrate, Allahabad to the effect that he is son of Dr. S. R. Singh r/o Hardoi (Dr. Singh is permanent resident of Hardoi. Admission card was issued to the petitioner from the office of the Kanpur University treating him as a candidate in the said reserved category. He secured 941 marks out of 1200. Admission has not been given to him, however, in the M. B. B. S. course. There are two seats of this reserved category vacant one each in the K. G. Medical College, Lucknow and the Medical College, Allahabad. The only other candidate in this reserved category who secured higher percentage of marks than the petitioner is Kamal Netra Singh whose first preference is for the K. G. Medical College, Lucknow. To the petitioner the admission offered on 11th Sept. , 1982 is instead in the course of B. H. M. S. (Homeopathy) in the Government Ghazipur (Homeopathic) Medical College, Ghazipur. Aggrieved the petitioner has moved this Court for a writ of mandamus directing the State Government to admit him to M. B. B. S. Course in the current session and preferably in the Medical College, Allahabad.
(3.) SRI S. P. Gupta learned Counsel for the petitioner raised a twofold contention in support of the petition. It was urged that the expression "army personnel" used to describe the reserved category includes personnel of the Territorial Army. The 'army' comprises, it is submitted, not merely the regular Army but also the Army Reserve and the Territorial Army, Territorial Army personnel is subjected to rigors of discipline etc. as that of the regular Army and the argument further is that with suitable alterations the provisions of the Army Act, 1950 extend also to personnel of the Territorial Army constituted under the Territorial Army Act, 1948. The petitioner's father being an officer holding the rank of a Lt. Colonel in the Territorial Army, the argument proceeds, the petitioner is entitled to benefit of the reserved category. The other contention of the learned Counsel is that since admit card had been issued to the petitioner treating him as covered under this category, there can be no going back. Taking up the second contention of the petitioner's learned Counsel first, there is no dispute that on receipt of the petitioner's application in the prescribed form admit card was issued to the petitioner from the office of the Kanpur University thereby permitting him to appear as a candidate of reserved category. For the respondent it has been submitted that this was due to inadvertent error on the part of the clerical staff of the University. The application in the prescribed pro forma gave the address, as mentioned above, namely : - "s/o Dr. S. R. Singh, r/o 1, Professor's Residence, M. L. N. Medical College, Allahabad. ";