Case: Javid Rasool Bhat and Others Etc Vs. State of Jammu and Kashmir and Others

Writ petitions questioning admissions to the medical colleges at Srinagar and Jammu appear to have become an annual feature in this court. In the previous years, there was some justification. It does not appear to be s o this year. In these writ petitions, the selection of candidates for admission to the two medical colleges at Srinagar and Jammu as well as the nominations by the Government of Jammu &Kashmir to medical colleges outside the State are in question. On Max 24, 1983, the Government of Jammu &Kashmir issued an advertisement inviting applications from permanent residents of Jammu &Kashmir State for admission to the first year MBBS in the medical colleges at Jammu &Srinagar. One of t he conditions of eligibility was that a candidate should have passed the "First TDC (Medical Group) examination from Jammu &Kashmir Board of School Education with not less than 50% of the total marks in English and Science subjects taken together". There was some relaxation in favour candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, etc. with which we are not now concerned. We are also not concerned in these writ petitions with the reservations made in favour of various classes. We are only concerned with the seats or places available for open competition. The advertisement expressly mentioned that the candidates would have to appear in a written test of TDC-Part I Standard, comprising of two papers, one paper consisting of the subjects, Physics and Chemistry and the other, Biology and English. It was also mentioned in the advertisement that the candidates would be required to appear at a Viva-voce examination. On 7th July, 1983, the Government of Jammu &Kashmir published a notification called the Jammu &Kashmir Government Medical Colleges (Selection of Candidates for Admission to First Year MBBS Course) Procedure Order 1983. Paragraph 4 of the order which is relevant is asMerit: -The inter-se-merit of the candidates shall be determined on the basis of the following:-(i) Written test ..85 Points(ii) Viva voce ..15 Points- ------------------------Total 100 Points-------------------------The points earmarked for viva-voce will further be subdivided into the following factors:(a) Aptitude ..8 Points(b) G.K.GI ..7 Points---------------------Total .. 1526th August 1983, a Selection Committee was constituted consisting of the Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission as Chairman and two members, namely, the Principals of the two Government Medical Colleges at Srinagar and Jammu. The quorum for a meeting of the Committee was stipulated as the Chairman and one member. On the same day by another notification it was directed that the Selection Commit tee should arrange and conduct the written test and evolve its own procedure for appointing examiners and for the conduct of the examination, etc. The Selection Committee held its first meeting on September 2, 1983 when one of the members, the Principal of the Government Medical College, Srinagar informed the Committee that his daughter was one of the candidates and that it would not be desirable for him to be associated, at any stage, with the written test to be conducted by the Committee and further that he would not like to be present when his daughter was interviewed. The Committee took note of the information and agreed with the suggestion. As the Government had also fixed a quorum for a meeting of the Committee, it was not considered necessary to have a substitute member appointed. Thereafter a detailed procedure was evolved for the written test and interviews. The Chairman was authorised to consult the Chairman of the Jammu &Kashmir Board of School Education and select the required number of examiners and pacesetters. The written test was conducted simultaneously at Jammu &Kashmir on September 22, 1983. The written test was followed by interviews from September 22, 1983 to October 11, 1 983. One important factor which requires to be mentioned here is that the marks secured in the written test by the respective candidates was not available to the Selection Committee when the Committee interviewed the candidates. The Committee m et again on October 25, 1983 by which time the results of the written test were also available. The Selection Committee proceeded with the task of finalising the selection. The selected candidates were sent individual intimations and on December 3, 1983, a notification was published by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir informing the public that the result of the written test/Viva Voce held for admission to the First year of the MBBS Course for the Medical Colleges of the State was available in the offices of the Principals of the Government Medical Colleges at Jammu and Srinagar. Candidates were also told that marks card would be issued on payment of a fee of Rs. 5/- and that any candidate interested in seeing his/her answer book could do so on payment of Rs. 20/- as fee for each paper. Some of the facts mentioned above were taken by us from the counter affidavits filed on behalf of the Government of Jammu &Kashmir and were not admitted by the petitioners. We do not however have the slightest doubt about the correctness of these facts, as they are fully supported by contemporaneous official records.The petitioners have filed these writ petites impugning the selection made by the Committee on various grounds. In their petitions, they have indulged in several allegations and insinuations for which there is no basis whatsoever. Shri Anil Dev Singh, learned counsel for some of the petitioners raised three contentions. The first was that the entire selection was vitiated the presence on the Committee of the father of a candidate. The second contention was that the entire procedure was bad as the marks obtained by the candidates at the qualifying examination (TDC-Part I Medical Group) were not taken into account and not given any weightage whatever. The third contention was that the viva- voce test provided for 7 points for general knowledge and general intelligence whereas it would have been more appropriate to test the general knowledge and general intelligence of candidates by holding a written test instead of a viva voce test. Shri Anil Dev Singh also generally submitted that the viva voce test was a mere manoeuvre designed to bring in candidates who had fared badly in the written test. Shri A.K. Sen, learned counsel who appeared for some of the other petitioners made only one submission and it was that the viva voce test had worked in an unreasonable and arbitrary manner, in fact and as a matter of principle. He elaborated the submission by arguing that though the two papers in the written test carried 550 marks, they were reduced to 85 points as against 15 points for the viva voce test. The result, according to him, was that candidates who got a lead of 20-25 marks in the written test had to bow down to candidates who got a lead of 3 or 4 points in the viva voce test as the marks obtained in the written test were reduced to points in the ratio of 50 to 85. Shri Sen also submitted that the questions put to the candidates at the interview were not designed to test either aptitude or general knowledge or general intelligence and for that reason, the selection was vitiated. He suggested that the final results bore eloquent testimony to the injustice done to the minority community in the State.We find no substance whatever in any of the submission made by Shri Anil Dev Singh and Shri A.K. Sen. We may straightway observe that the insinuation that the interviews were so conducted as to do injustice to the minority community appears to us to be uncharitable and Impetuous. We find that there are candidates belonging to both the majority and the minority communities among the candidates who were able to secure admission because of the points scored by them in the viva voce test, as also amongst the candidates who failed to secure admission because of their low score in the viva voce test. The inconsiderateness of the allegation is evident from the fact that the marks obtained by the candidates in the written test were not even available to the Selection Committee when they conducted the viva voce test. This circumstance is sufficient to repudiate the broad allegation freely made by Shri Anil Dev Singh that the viva voce test was designed to facilitate the selection of candidates who had fared badly in the writtensubmission that the questions put to the candidates at the interview were not designed to test either the aptitude, general knowledge or general intelligence of the candidates is equally without substance. In the writ petitions, no such averment was made and no instances were given. In the petition a general allegation was made that the viva voce test had been abused to dilute the otherwise high merit of the petitioners. On behalf of the respondents, one of the members of the Selection Committee, Dr. S.L. Verma, Principal of the Government Medical College, Jammu filed a counter-affidavit in which, he stated..... Not less than six minutes were spent on each candidate though in certain cases interview lasted for more than ten minutes. All the candidates were fully and fairly assessed and it is denied that the candidates were interviewed only to manipulate the results. The candidates were questioned by the members of Selection Committee only in respect of factors of interview prescribed in SRO-380 dated 7-7-1783 and the entire process was above board and extremely fair. I submit that the result of the written test became available to the members of the selection committee only after the interviews had been completed",After this counter-affidavit had been filed, some of the petitioners chose to file rejoinder affidavits to suggest that their interviews lasted for about two to three minutes only and that questions relating to the aptitude, general knowledge or general intelligence of the candidates were not asked. It was stated that some of the candidates were asked the names and occupations of their parents or brothers, and some were asked why he or she wanted to become a doctor and so on. Aarti Kaul stated in her affidavit that she was also asked to give an example of Collard (?) of the human body, that she replied that it was blood and she was then asked what the constitution of blood was, to which she replied "Plasma Haemoglobin RBC Serum". Rajesh Gupta, another candidate, stat ed that his interview lasted for two or three minutes and apart from questions relating to the name and occupation of his father and brothers, he was also asked to define absolute zero and international ampere. He answered both the questions. H e claimed that he was asked no question relating to aptitude, general knowledge or general intelligence.We are of the view that there is no genuine basis for any complaint in regard to the nature of the questions which the candidates were asked in the viva voce test. We accept the statement of D. Verma that the Selection Committee put relevant question to the candidates to test their aptitude, general knowledge and general intelligence. Anyone who has served on a Selection Committee and interviewed candidates knows that a large number of candidates are nervous and in order to put them at ease, it is necessary to ask them to start with, innocuous questions, such as, what is your fathers occupation ?, which part of the country do you come from?, what is your mother-tongue? and so on. Such questions are intended to enable the candidate to feel at ease and get over his nervousness. No complaint can surely to made that candidates were put such questions. We also fail to see how any complaint can be made of the fact that questions on science subjects were asked of candidates seeking admission to medical colleges, Surely such questions are at least as good as questions about the name of the capita l of an obscure Latin American State or who captained India in the Second test match against Pakistan in 1980. We entertain on doubt that the questions asked were proper and relevant. We add that it is not for the court to sit in judgment over the nature of the questions to be put by the members of the Selection Committee. It is for the members of the Selection Committee to decide what questions they should ask and so long as the questions are not such as to indicate that the interview was nothing but a make-believe. we must allow the matter to rest there. It is not the function of the court to weigh each question to find out the extent to which it is related to aptitude, general knowledge or general intelligence. If the question is not flippant, it is not for the court to say that the question was irrelevant and should not have been asked at an interview. Perhaps irrelevant questions may also be asked to explore the candidates capacity to detect irrelevancies. It is not for the court to claim to itself the task of determining the nature of the questions to be put to candidates appearing at an interview. The persons constituting the Selection Committee who may generally be assumed to be men of experience and knowledgeable in regard to men and matters may surely be expected to put the right questions. In the absence of malafides, the matter is best left to them.Mr. Sen made a complaint that the marks obtained in the written test were reduce to points and this had resulted in candidates who had fared well in the interview stealing a march over some candidates who had fared well in the written test. The rules require that pints should be awarded for the written test and 15 points for the viva voce test. Therefore, although the written tests carried a total of 550 marks, the marks obtained by each candidate had to be necessarily reduced on the points on the basis that 85 points equalled 550 marks The grievance is plainly imaginary.

Court's reasoning:
We do not think that the case is of any assistance to the petitioners. It was a ca se where one of the persons, who sat as member of the Selection Board, was himself one of the persons to be considered for selection. He participated in the deliberations of the Selection Board when the clams of his rivals were considered. He participated in the decisions relating to the orders of preference and seniority. He participated at every stage in the deliberations of the Selection Board and at every stage there was a conflict between his interest and duty. The court had no hesitation coming to the conclusion that there was a reasonable likelihood of ibis and therefore, there was a violation of the principles of natural justice. In the case before us, the Principal of the Medical College, Srinagar , dissociated himself from the written test and did not participate in the proceedings when his daughter was interviewed. When the other candidates were interviewed, he did not know the marks obtained either by his daughter or by any of the candidates . There was no occasion to suspect his bona fides even remotely. There was not even a suspicion of bias, leave alone a reasonable likelihood of bias. There was no violation of the principals of naturallast submission, which we may note, was that there was a contravention of one of the regulations made by the Indian Medical Council. It was said that the regulation prescribed that the marks obtained at the qualifying examination should be taken into consideration in States having only one Medical College and one University/Board/Examination Body conducting the qualifying examination. This regulation has no application because there are two Medical Colleges in this State . Though only one Board conducted the qualifying examination, the examinations were conducted separately for Jammu and Srinagar areas and on two different occasions. In the second place, these regulations, have been held to be directory an d not mandatory by this court in State of Madhya Pradesh v. Kr. Nivedita Jain.(1)We have considered the various points raised by the petitioners at some length, we have said so much and we have quoted from the previous judgments of this Court in extense not because we find any substance in any of the contentions, but because these contentionsare being repeatedly raised in many such cases and we desire to discourage the raising of unnecessary hope in the minds of the young men and women seeking the aid of courts for admission into professional colleges, ready as they are to clutch at any straw.