G.S. Sandhawalia, J. - (1.) THE relief claimed in the present writ petition is for issuance of a direction to consider the candidates from reserved category to general category candidates on the strength of their merit.
(2.) THE petitioner's case is that she belongs to a Schedule Caste (SC) category and appeared in All India Pre -Medical Test conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education on 4.5.2014. She applied for admission with respondent no. 2 -institute which has 77 UT Chandigarh pool seats. Out of these 12 seats belong to SC category (15%) and 2 belong to category of physically disabled candidates (3%) whereas general seats are 63. It is the case of the petitioner that she is at merit No. 14 of the list of SC candidates and one physically disabled seat had been converted into a general seat raising availability of general seats to 64. It is further case of the petitioner that 2 SC candidates namely Himanshi and Preet who have secured 68.88% and 63.4% marks in the entrance test and are at merit No. 35 and 63 and are being adjusted against the SC category seats instead of being adjusted on the strength of their merit in the general category. It is accordingly submitted that in case they are adjusted against general category seats, then the petitioner who is at no. 14 would come at Sr. No. 12 and would be entitled for admission as SC candidate. Reference has also been made to the legal notice served on July 17, 2014 (Annexure P/2). It is submitted that counselling is stated to be fixed for tomorrow and in spite of legal notice sent, no action has been taken. In such circumstances, this Court is of the opinion that respondents need not be called upon as admittedly as per the terms of prospectus itself admission is to be made as pleaded by the petitioner. Reference can be safely made to Clause 2 of the Central Admission Brochure (Annexure P/1) circulated by respondent no. 2. The said Clause reads as under: - 2. All eligible candidates, except in the NRI category, will be considered for admission against General category seats according to their rank/merit in the combined list, in addition to the category/categories they have applied for. Important Note: - Candidate(s) belonging to a reserved category who obtains admission on the basis of his/her rank/merit in the General category shall not be counted towards the seats for the reserved category concerned.
(3.) BY calling upon the respondents only the admissions would be delayed as unnecessarily a seat would have to be reserved. In such circumstances, respondent no. 2 is directed to decide the representation of the petitioner by passing a speaking order before the counselling process is finalised tomorrow and if the relief claimed is found genuine, the petitioner would be accordingly adjusted as prayed for and in case the relief is not to be granted, a speaking order be passed and conveyed to the petitioner.;