S.S. Sandhaioalia, J. - (1.) WHETHER the handicapped class of students educated in the common rural schools can be allowed some marginal preferential treatment to equalise the imbalance as against the city educated students, by way of a reservation of some seats for admission to a medical faculty is the significant constitutional question which falls for determination 'before this Full Bench.
(2.) IT is evident that the issue aforesaid is primarily legal and would necessarily pertain to the rationality and the constitutionality of the classification involved yet the matrix of facts giving rise to -the same first inevitably calls for some notice in detail. The three Petitioners duly qualified in the medical entrance examination conducted by the M. D. University, Rohtak, and on the basis thereof claimed admission to the medical faculty of the said University. According to the prospectus for the admission thereto 25 seats out of a total of 115 were reserved for rural candidates who had received education up to the 8th standard in a common rural school situated in a village not having any municipality or notified area or town area committee,, for claiming this reservation, a certificate in the prescribed form in appendix 'C' of the prospectus was to -be submitted along with; the application. According to the merit list drawn up for admission, - -vide annexure P. 3, the names of the Petitioners appeared at serial Nos. 76, 88 and 89 of the open merit list but they were denied admission because of the reservation made for the handicapped class of students educated in common rural schools. The Petitioners, therefore, pointedly assailed this reservation as unconstitutional. The basic reliance on their behalf was on State of U.P. and Ors. v. Pradip Tandon and Ors. : AIR 1975 S.C. 563 with the added ground that earlier reservation of similar nature made by the M. D. University, Rohtak, was struck down by the Division Bench in Kumari Promila Jain etc. v. The State of Haryana and Ors. CWP 3371 of 78 decided on 26th February, 1979, by following the judgment in Pradip Tandon's case (supra). In the return filed on behalf of the Respondents the factual position is not at all controverted. The categoric stand, however, is that indeed the nature of the reservation in Pradip Tandon's case was entirely different from the present one and bears no similarity with the same. It is pointed out that in the Supreme Court case the question was entirely under Article 15(4) of the Constitution of India and the identical situation prevailed in Kumari Promila Jain's case (supra) which again fell within the ambit of the same Article. The firm stand taken is that it would be wholly wrong to say that the impugned reservation herein is for candidates from rural area because there is neither the condition of residence nor any condition of birth in a rural area for its applicability. By way of example, it is pointed out that sons and wards of Doctors, Gram Sachiv, employees of Agriculture Department, Electricity Department,, Cooperative Department and Revenue Department who received their education in the common rural schools would be as well entitled to the reservation along with a number of other candidates who may neither be residents nor born in a rural area. It is, therefore, submitted that no question of the applicability of Article 15(4) would arise and the classification made by the Respondents is. plainly sustainable under Article 14 of the Constitution. The students who have studied in the common rural schools situated in the villages form so patently different a claim from those who have received education in cities and urban areas. The vast difference between the educational facilities, in the shape of science laboratories, libraries, teaching staff and the like which are available in the urban schools and their paucity and sometimes total absence in the common rural schools in the villages is pointedly highlighted. It is then averred that the Respondents have got conducted expert surveys in the districts of Rohtak, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Karnal, Gurgaon and Hissar and the reports or synopses thereof are attached as annexures R. 1/3 to R. 1/8 to the return. The said survey report, according to the Respondents, brings out scores of handicaps uniformly buffered by the candidates who received education in the common rural schools. From the said report, the basic handicaps which emerge to the fore may be tabulated as follows, - -vide R. 1/3 to R.1/8: (1) In rural schools majority of the students are of first generation learners and their parents being illiterate in most cases, they stand at a disadvantage in their school achievements as against the children of Urban Areas wherein majority of cases the parents are themselves well educated ; (2) Hardly there is a provision for electric fans in summer in any of the rural schools and the extreme summer season followed by rainy season almost shortens the academic year for the rural students and this factor further keeps them at a disadvantage in their academic achievements as compared to children in the urban schools where the academic session goes undisturbed by the extreme summer or the rainy season. In Rohtak District hundreds of schools in Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh Sub -Divisions are adversely affected by floods every year and the imparting of instruction during these days becomes almost impossible. (3) The development programmes so far implemented in the State of Haryana have not been able to make the rural life attractive to good teachers and they are, therefore, unwilling to join any rural schools. There is consequently great disparity in the educational facilities in rural and urban schools and in such a situation the academic achievements in rural schools cannot Be qualitatively compared with the achievements in urban schools. (4) In many of the rural middle/high schools in district Rohtak, Science Masters and Mathematics Masters are not available. Consequently, the rural schools students lag behind in the subjects of Science and Mathematics which have the most important place in the present technological age. To enable the students in rural schools to get admission to the Medical and Engineering Colleges, the existing situation puts them at a great disadvantage. (5) In majority of the rural schools the science labs, and the Libraries are not well equipped. Hence, the students in rural schools fail to develop reading interests or an experimental attitude in life much needed for pursuing higher courses in science. (6) All good recognised private schools and public schools, model schools, if any, are situated in urban areas. In the whole Rohtak District there is no Model /Public School in rural areas. (7) Generally the teachers reside in urban areas and go as bus passengers to attend to their duties in rural schools and reach there just in time and leave it immediately after the prescribed school hours. Thus there is no time with them to meet their students in the evening or out of school hours. In such a situation the extra -curricular life of the students in the rural school remains poor and this adversely affects the harmonious development of their personalities. (8) Hundreds of primary, Middle Schools have no adequate building, sufficient playgrounds, drinking water facility and such a situation leaves much to be desired for giving a congenial educational atmosphere to the students in the rural schools. (9) The pass percentage of the rural schools is markedly low as compared to that of urban schools. The rural children are not provided with even half the facilities and favourable environment available to their counter -parts of the urban Schools. The result is that they cannot be compared favourably with the students of urban schools. (10) Urban students get the educational facilities at their doorstep whereas rural students have to walk a distance of 4 to 8 kilometers daily to reach the school. According to the survey only 46 per cent of the population residing in rural areas has the Middle School facility in their villages. The High School facility in the villages is available to only 33 per cent of the rural population. (11) There are many Model/Public Schools in the Urban areas. They admit the students of three years of age in pre nursery, LKG and K.G. Classes. The students admitted in these schools get the educational atmosphere from the very beginning and their foundation is made in these classes whereas no such facility is available to the rural children.
(3.) IT is the stand of the State that to remove the aforesaid glaring inequalities it has become necessary to frame the present rules of admission along with the reservations in favour of the handicapped class of students educated in any rural school. This was otherwise called for from the experience of previous years which indicated that hardly any candidate who received any education from rural schools could get admission in the open merit category for the medical faculty during the academic sessions of 1978 -79 and 1979 -80. Only five candidates from this category each year could get admission on the basis of open merit category and their ratio would come to a paltry 6 per cent in each year although they represent over 80% the major portion of the population of the State of Haryana. Such a situation, according to the Respondents clearly call for measures to remove the ever -persisting inequality between the two classes which would otherwise have been perpetuated.;