Case: Diwakar Shrivastava and Others Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh and Others

The appellants in the several appeals before us question the relaxation granted to candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in regard to the minimum qualifying marks for admission into the medical colleges of the State of Madhya Pradesh.We are afraid we have to throw out these appeals on the preliminary ground that the persons likely to be affected if we agree with the submissions made on behalf of the appellants, that is, the candidates belonging tot he Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes who have secured admission into the medical colleges as a result of the relaxation granted to them have not been brought before us by being properly impleaded as parties. We fail to see how the question of the legality or validity of the relaxation granted in their favour can possibly be decided in their absence. Rules of natural justice apply as much to proceedings in courts of law as to proceedings before authorities elsewhere. It may be that where a general question is involved and a large number of persons are concerned, the court may, in appropriate cases, permit a few of them to be sued in a representative capacity or may consider them as sufficiently represented by a few who have been properly impleaded as parties. That is not the situation here. No effort has been made to implead any person likely to be affected as a party to the proceeding. All the appeals are liable to be dismissed on this short ground.

Reasoning:
So far as admission to medical colleges for the yearis concerned, it is stated in the additionalfiled on behalf of the first respondent that all the seats including those transferred from the reserved category to the general category have been filled and there are no more vacancies. It is, therefore, unnecessary to give any direction in Civil Appeal Nos. 6407 and 6408 which relate to the yearThe other appeals relate to admissions during the year 1983In these cases, we have no definite information as to the number of vacancies available. Even if there are a large number of vacancies, we cannot give any direction to admit the appellants against those vacancies since we are not in a position to say that appellants are the best candidates from the general category. All that we can do is to say that if on account ofof candidates from the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, there are any vacancies which are required to be transferred to the general category under the rules, such vacancies may be filled up from the general category on the basis of merit. We do not have any doubt that this will be done.