HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH **** CWP No.14936 of 2011 (O&M) Date of Decision: 14.10.2011 **** Baljeet Kaur . . . . Petitioner VS. National Institute of Nursing Education, PGIMER & Ors. . . . . Respondents **** CORAM : HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT **** 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? **** Present: Mr. AK Lamdharia, Advocate; Mr. GP Singh, Advocate for the petitioner(s) Mr. Tushar Sharma, Advocate for respondents No.1 to 3 **** SURYA KANT J. (ORAL) (1). This order shall dispose of CWP Nos.14936, 15246 & 17839 of 2011. Though the issues involved therein are interlinked, however, for proper adjudication, each case is being dealt with separately. CWP No.14936 of 2011 (2). The petitioner (Baljeet Kaur) belongs to reserved category of Scheduled Caste. She applied for admission in Bachelor of Science Nursing, (Post Basic) in the National Institute of Nursing Education, Postgraduate Institute of CWP No.14936 of 2011.doc - 2 – Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh against a seat reserved for the candidates to be sponsored by PGIMER, Chandigarh. The admitted facts are that she got 56.75 marks out of 100 and stood at Sr.No.2 in the Scheduled Castes category for which only one seat is reserved. Her merit position, however, is higher than 6 General category candidates who have got marks between 56.00 to 50.25 marks. There were 7 seats meant for the General category out of which one seat incidentally has remained unfilled. Petitioner (Baljeet Kaur), as per her merit position, is obviously to be treated as Open category candidate. (3). Ordered accordingly. Petitioner (Baljeet Kaur) shall thus be admitted against the unfilled seat of General category. CWP No.17839 of 2011 (4). Petitioner (Hardeep Kaur) in this case belongs to Scheduled Caste category who too competed for the above- mentioned admission and secured 46.50 marks and is placed at Sr.No.3 amongst the Scheduled Caste candidates. Neelam Chopra who atops the merit list of Scheduled Caste candidates has not come forward to seek admission. The candidate at Sr.No.2 (Baljeet Kaur) has 2 CWP No.14936 of 2011.doc - 3 – been directed to be admitted against the open category seat. Hence, the petitioner (Hardeep Kaur) being the next candidate in order of merit is entitled to be admitted against the resultant solitary seat reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidate. (5). Ordered accordingly. 3 CWP No.14936 of 2011.doc - 4 – CWP No.15246 of 2011 (6). The petitioners belong to reserved category of Other Backward Class (OBC) for whom two seats are reserved. Only one OBC candidate has come forward and got admission and one seat has remained unfilled. (i) Hans Raj Saravagi (petitioner No.2) who has got 54.74 marks being the next candidate in order of merit amongst the OBC candidates is undoubtedly entitled to be admitted against the said unfilled seat. Ordered accordingly. (ii) Geeta Devi (petitioner No.1) who has got 46.75 marks is also entitled to be admitted for the reason that the candidates placed at Sr.No.1 to 3 in order of merit amongst the OBC category are higher in merit than all the candidates admitted in the open category. Should they have been treated in the Open category, petitioner No.1 would be upgraded to Sr.No.2 amongst OBC candidates and is entitled to be admitted to the subject course against the 2nd seat reserved for the OBC category. However, the admissions already made need not be upset to accommodate Geeta Devi. It is informed by learned counsel for the respondent- Institute that one seat meant for Scheduled Tribe candidate (s) has remained unfilled previous year as well as in this Session as no candidate belonging to that reserved category 4 CWP No.14936 of 2011.doc - 5 – has sought admission. Instead of allowing the said vacant seat to go unutilized, I direct the respondent-Institute to admit petitioner (Geeta Devi) against that seat. (7). The writ petition(s) is/are disposed of in the above- mentioned terms with a direction to the respondent- Institute to do the needful as early as possible but not later than one week from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. (8). Dasti . 14.10.2011 vishal shonkar (SURYA KANT) Judge 5