G.S. Sandhawalia, J. - (1.) THE petitioner in the present writ petition is praying for the relief of admission in M.S. (Orthopaedics) in the Government Medical College, Patiala against category No. 17, 'Wards of Terrorism or Riot Affected or Displaced Persons'. The admission of respondent No. 4 -Gunvinder Singh against the said seat is sought to be cancelled on account of the fact that he had never applied in the said category.
(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that after obtaining his MBBS degree from Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot (its acronym, 'BFUHS') and wanting to seek admission in the MD/MS course and appeared in the All India Post -Graduate Medical Entrance Examination, 2014 (its acronym, 'AIPGMEE') conducted by the National Board of Examinations. She secured 874.8509 out of 1500 marks and was placed at rank No. 912 in the State list of Punjab. Respondent No. 1 -University issued the prospectus wherein, against General seats, there was category No. 17 for admission to 'Wards of Terrorism or Riots Affected or Displaced Persons'. The petitioner fulfilled all the eligibility criteria prescribed for admission against the said category and sought admission on 20.03.2013 in the said category and appended the relevant certificate, issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Patiala dated 23.01.2014 (Annexure P5), which showed that she was a riot affected Sikh migrant and holder of Red Card. Counselling was held on 28.03.2014 and the category -wise list was published in the notice board and the name of respondent No. 4 was shown in category No. 16, in the order of merit. As per the Punjab Government notification dated 23.12.2013, only two seats were allocated for Riot/Terrorist affected category and one seat was at M.D. Obst. & Gynae at GMC, Amritsar and other in M.S. Orthopaedics at GMC, Patiala. As per Clause 26 -V(v), under the category 'Wards of Terrorism/Riot Affected Persons, preference was to be given to 'Persons killed in terrorist activities in Punjab or in 1984 riots, outside Punjab'. Thereafter, 'Terrorism/Riot Affected/Displaced Persons of Punjab Origin' were to be given preference and accordingly, it was found that none of the candidates from category No. 16 was eligible but for reasons best known to the respondent -University, admission was granted to respondent No. 4 under category No. 17 in blatant violation of Clause 3.9 of the prospectus. The judgment passed by this Court in CWP No. 13280 of 2010 titled Manbir Kaur & others Vs. State of Punjab & another was also brought to the notice of the Admission Committee that a candidate who had not applied under a particular category, could not be considered against the said category. Resultantly, the present writ petition is filed on the ground that respondent No. 4 applied against category No. 16 and therefore, could not have been given admission against category No. 17.
(3.) RESPONDENTS No. 1 & 2, in their reply, submitted that respondent No. 4 had secured 875.1654 marks and had applied for admission in the 'Terrorist/Riot Affected Category' and was placed at merit No. 1 of the provisional merit list. 2% seats were reserved for the wards of different categories in the order of preference to the exclusion of the next category. Respondent No. 4 had applied in the Riot Affected Categories, claiming preference in Category No. 1 of the said clause of taking benefit of the 'Persons killed in terrorist activities in Punjab or in 1984 riots outside Punjab', bearing category No. 16 but he could not be given the said preference as no one was killed in the Riot/Terrorist Activities. He belongs to category code No. 17 of 'Terrorism/Riot Affected/Displaced Persons', who could be given the said preference and therefore, the Selection Committee had unanimously decided to make a common merit for the riot affected candidates and respondent No. 4 being higher in merit and having secured more marks in the AIPGMEE, 2013, was selected in the M.S. (Orthopaedics).;