Case: State of Kerala Vs. Kumari T.P. Roshana and Anr

claimed was admission to the medical college. 27. The upshot of the judgment, in terms of student impact, government policy, college admissions and potential for agitation , may be envisioned for a while. We may also take note of the gregarious trend of one writ petition being followed by many when the grievance is common and the first case is in essence a test case and class action. What is granted to the petitioner has to be granted to others who follow her. In terms of numbers several candidates may have to be admitted into the medical colleges. More than that is the chaotic consequence of the pro tempore project of the Government being struck down with no alternative methodology of selection. Governments have no magic remedies to tide over sudden crisis. Their processes are notoriously slow and the temper of the student community is notoriously inflammable. Thus the negative stroke of voiding the G.O. and granting relief to the petitioner is to throw out a number of students already undergoing their course and to incite unwittingly student unrest of magnitude, apart from leaving the academic algebra for admissions in a state of vacuum. One thing is certain. If the syndrome of campus chaos is to be obviated, the court should come to the assistance of the Kerala University students already admitted and undergoing their medical course who might otherwise have to be jettisoned. We, therefore, do not think it right to force into the medical colleges any students who may be qualified for admission by virtue of our order at the expense of another who has already been admitted and is undergoing the medical course. This means that 30 students from the colleges affiliated to the Calicut University will have to be provided for ab extra. But how to find accommodation for 30 more students ?The Universities concerned have the power to increase the streghth ad hoc when gripped by a crisis such as has occurred here. The Medical Council of India has an overall control in this field, being the statutory body created under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. Thus, the concurrence of the Calicut and the Kerala Universities and the Medical Council of India becomes necessary for working out effective reliefs in terms of adding to the strength on a temporary footing, with a sense of equity and anxiety to do justice to the existing entrants. 28. Unfortunately, neither the Universities concerned nor the students affected are parties. The presence of the Medical Council of India also has to be secured. Confronted by this situation, we directed, as a measure of emergency issuance of notice to the two Universities and made them party to the record. A similar step was taken in the case of the Medical Council of India. At short notice, all the three parties entered appearance. Although Shri A. S. Nambiar, appearing for the University, expressed inability to consent to any course of addition of strength, he agreed that the concerned academic bodies were likely to meet shortly and the Universities themselves would abide by any directions t his Court issued in the interests of Justice. The learned Advocate General had earlier represented that the Universities were likely to agree to a temporary addition of strength, provided the Medical Council of India would also approve of t he course. We need hardly say that the writ of this Court binds the parties on record and all the three bodies are before us and must abide by the directions we issue necessitated by the exigency of the situation and the need to do justice. 29. After all, the Court system belongs to the people and must promote constructive justice; and all institutions, including the Governments and Universities, likewise belong, to the people. This commitment is the whet stone for doing justice in the wider context of social good. The Universities, as we gather from counsel representing all the parties, may not find it difficult to accommodate 30 students more, apportioned among the four medical colleges of the State. This addition is compelled by the critical condition set out above. This need will not survive this academic year and, in that sense, no long term trauma for academic standards will be inflicted by each of the colleges accommodating a few more students for their courses this year. After all, not much time has passed since the teaching session began. Compared to their existing strength, the additions are negligible. The Medical Council of India, through the learned Additional Solicitor Genera l, has expressed that it has no objection to this proposal for a miniscule addition confined to this academic year. We see no ground for either University to plead inability to help the cause of Justice. The insistence on standards, measured by mark s, is not being relaxed, so much so the quality of the admission of additional students does not suffer. A marginal strain in the matter of teaching and perhaps extra burden in regard to the practicals may have to be endured. We are, therefore sure that the Universities, the colleges concerned, the teaching community and the alumni themselves will appreciate the goal and cooperate in the success of the direction we make.Had we left the Judgment of the High Court in the conventional form of merely quashing the formula of admission the remedy would have aggravated the malady- confusion, agitation, paralysis. The root of the grievance and the fruit of the writ are not individual but collective and while the adversary system makes the Judge a mere umpire, traditionally speaking, the community orientation of the judicial function, so desirable in the Third World remedial jurisprudence, transforms the courts power into affirmative structuring of redress so as to make it personally meaningful and socially relevant. Frustration of invalidity is part of the judicial duty; fulfillment of legality is complementary. This principle of affirmative action is within our jurisdiction under Art. 136 and Art. 32 and we think the present cases deserve its exercise 30.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]The rule of law runs close to the rule of life and where societal life, as between one part of the State and another, is the victim ofd disparities the constitutional mandate of equal justice under the law responds to it pragmatically and permits classification geared to eventual equalisation. We, therefore, agree with the High Court that current conditions warrant the classification of the student community on the Zonal basisnot as a legitimation of endless perpetuation but as a transient panacea for an handicap which the State must actively strive to undo.In Kerala, as in some other States, reservation policies of Governments and `equal protection pronouncements of courts have chased e ach other. A happy harmony among the great instrumentalities for accomplishment of constitutional goals by complementary action is the desideratum for developing countries, if we may say so respectfullyThe principle of reservation with weightage for the geographical area of the Malabar District has our approval in endorsement of the view or the High CourtWe are not impressed much wit h the surmise which colours the reasoning of the Full Bench and the learned Single Judge that there is such substantial difference in thee courses and evaluations between the sister universities within the same State that the breach of Art. 14 by equal treatment of the marks unequally secured by examinees in the two universities may be spelt out. It is trite law that every inconsequential differentiation between two things does not constitute the vice of discrimination, i f law clubs them together ignoring venial variances. Art. 14 is not a voodoo which visits with invalidation every executive or legislative fusion of things or categories where there are no pronounced inequalities. Mathematical equality is not the touchstone of constitutionalityThere can be no manner of doubt, and it is now fairly well settled, that the Government, as also other private agencies, who found such centres for medical training, have the right to frame rules f or admission so long as those rules are not inconsistent with the university statutes and regulations and do not suffer from infirmities, constitutional or otherwise. Since the universities are set up fore educational needs of different areas where they are set up and medical colleges are established in those areas, it can safely be presumed that they also were so set up to satisfy the needs for medical training of those attached to those universities. In our view, there is nothing undesirable in ensuring that those attached to such universities have their ambitions to have training in specialised subjects, like medicine satisfied through colleges affiliated to their own universities. Such a basis for selection has not the disadvantage of District wise or unit wise selection as any student from any part of the state can pass the qualifying examination in any of the three universities irrespective of the place of his birth or residence. Further, the rules confer a discretion on the selection committee to admit outsiders upto 20% of the total available seats in any one of these colleges, i .e. those who have passed the equivalent examination held by any other university not only in the State but also elsewhere in India..... The fact that a candidate having lesser marks might obtain admission at the cost of another having higher marks from another university does not necessarily mean that a less meritorious candidate gets advantage over a more meritorious one. As is well known, different universities have different standards in the examinations held by them. A preference to one attached to one university in its own institutions fore or technical training is not uncommon..... Further, the Government which bears the financial burden of running the Government colleges is entitled to lay down criteria for admission in its own colleges and to decide the sources from which admission would be made, provided of course, such classification is not arbitrary and has a rational bass and a reasonable connection with the object of the rules. So long as there is no discrimination within each of such sources, the validity of the rules laying down such sources cannot b e successfully challengedIn our view, the rules lay down a valid classification. Candidates passing through the qualifying examinations held by a university form a class by themselves as distinguished from those passing through such examination from the other two universities. Such a classification has a reasonable nexus with the object of the rules" namely, to cater to the needs of candidates who would naturally look to their own university to advance their training in technical studies, such as medical studies. In our opinion, the rules cannot justly be attacked on the ground of hostile discrimination or as being otherwise in breach of Art. 14We do not mean to lay down, as an inflexible dogma of universal application, that under utterly different social and educational environsd grouping of candidates for specialised course s will,, be valid. But the basic identity of pertinent circumstances bearing on thed descrimen in Chanchala and here constitutionalize the scheme of selection adopted by Government grouping all eligibles from colleges affiliated to each University as separate units. The High Courts perspective in this regard is impeccableWe agree with the High Court that the injection of the university wiseh is drawing theg across then irrelevance that invalidates the scheme. We cannot see the nexus between the registered studentstrength and the seats to be allotted. The fewer the colleges the fewer thee or degree students. And so, the linkage of the division of seats with the registeredh would make an irrational inroad into theOne thing is certain. If the syndrome of campus chaos is to be obviated, the court should come to the assistance of the Kerala University students already admitted and undergoing their medical course who might otherwise have to be jettisoned. We, therefore, do not think it right to force into the medical colleges any students who may be qualified for admission by virtue of our order at the expense of another who has already been admitted and is undergoing the medical course. This means that 30 students from the colleges affiliated to the Calicut University will have to be provided for ab extra. But how to find accommodation for 30 more students ?The Universities concerned have the power to increase the streghth ad hoc when gripped by a crisis such as has occurred here. The Medical Council of India has an overall control in this field, being the statutory body created underthe Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. Thus, the concurrence of the Calicut and the Kerala Universities and the Medical Council of India becomes necessary for working out effective reliefs in terms of adding to the strength on a temporary footing, with a sense of equity and anxiety to do justice to the existing entrantsAfter all, the Court system belongs to the people and must promote constructive justice; and all institutions, including the Governments and Universities, likewise belong, to the people. This commitment is the whet stone for doing justice in the wider context of social good. The Universities, as we gather from counsel representing all the parties, may not find it difficult to accommodate 30 students more, apportioned among the four medical colleges of the State. This addition is compelled by the critical condition set out above. This need will not survive this academic year and, in that sense, no long term trauma for academic standards will be inflicted by each of the colleges accommodating a few more students for their courses this year. After all, not much time has passed since the teaching session began. Compared to their existing strength, the additions are negligible. The Medical Council of India, through the learned Additional Solicitor Genera l, has expressed that it has no objection to this proposal for a miniscule addition confined to this academic year. We see no ground for either University to plead inability to help the cause of Justice. The insistence on standards, measured by mark s, is not being relaxed, so much so the quality of the admission of additional students does not suffer. A marginal strain in the matter of teaching and perhaps extra burden in regard to the practicals may have to be endured. We are, therefore sure that the Universities, the colleges concerned, the teaching community and the alumni themselves will appreciate the goal and cooperate in the success of the direction we make.Had we left the Judgment of the High Court in the conventional form of merely quashing the formula of admission the remedy would have aggravated the maladyconfusion, agitation, paralysis. The root of the grievance and the fruit of the writ are not individual but collective and while the adversary system makes the Judge a mere umpire, traditionally speaking, the community orientation of the judicial function, so desirable in the Third World remedial jurisprudence, transforms the courts power into affirmative structuring of redress so as to make it personally meaningful and socially relevant. Frustration of invalidity is part of the judicial duty; fulfillment of legality is complementary. This principle of affirmative action is within our jurisdiction under Art. 136 and Art. 32 and we think the present cases deserve its exercise