Plea Challenges Modifications in eligibility criteria for GMCH 32 MBBS admissions, HC issues notice to UT

Chandigarh: While considering a plea challenging the recent modifications in the eligibility criteria for MBBS admission at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32 (GMCH-32), the Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notice to the Chandigarh Administration.

Filed by petitioner Ananya Goswami questioned the recent changes in the MBBS eligibility criteria by which the UT administration has removed all kinds of exemptions that were earlier offered to the wards of defence personnel and ex-servicemen.

It was argued by the petitioner that such a harsh condition made the concession offered to the wards of Defence wards as purposeless. The plea claimed that since a Defence personnel belongs to the whole country he should atleast get the choice of at least one state quota as per his/her choice.

Taking note of the submissions made by the counsel for the petitioners, the division bench of High Court issued notice in the matter and fixed the next date for hearing as August 23, 2022.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that introducing a major change in the eligibility criteria for MBBS admission at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, the UT administration had removed all kinds of exemptions earlier offered to wards of defence personnel and ex-servicemen under the 'UT Pool' category.

Also Read: GMCH Chandigarh revises Eligibility criteria for MBBS admissions

Earlier there was a distinction between the wards of defence personnel/ex-servicemen and the local candidates of Chandigarh in terms of applying at GMCH-32. While the candidates belonging to the former category could apply from anywhere in India for Chandigarh, the latter were not allowed to apply in any other State/UT of India to be eligible for GMCH-32.

However, the UT administration has now modified the conditions after several pleas challenging the waiver of domicile to the wards of defense personnel were filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

As per the latest media report by Indian Express, now a plea has been filed before a Division bench of Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging these modifications regarding the eligibility criteria. It has been submitted in the plea that since 1992, the Chandigarh Administration has been following the Union Government's directives and accordingly the wards of Defence Personnel were excluded from the mandatory domiciliary conditions. Therefore, they did not need to pass Class 10 Plus 2 from the Chandigarh schools and previously they were treated as the UT pool candidates against 85% admission quota.

Filed through counsels Amar Vivek Aggarwal and Shiva Prashar the plea also referred to the fact that the Chandigarh Administration had itself framed a scheme back in 2007 by which wards of Defence personnel had been given special consideration.

The petitioner also referred to the August 2018 order in the case of Ashu Hooda, where the High Court had directed the Chandigarh Administration for complying with the condition of making it mandatory for the students to pass 3 years of Studies- Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12 from Chandigarh schools. Submitting that the UT administration had introduced the said condition in a staggered manner spread over three years for the General Category candidates, the plea claimed that the new policy by the UT administration has been implemented in a grossly discriminatory manner, much after the NEET notification dated April 6, 2022 had been issued.

Through the changed policy, the UT administration had restricted the benefits awarded to the wards of Defence Personnel only to those who were permanent residents of Chandigarh at the time of their entry into service.

The 150 MBBS seats at the medical college are distributed by contributing 15% of the seats to the All India Quota, whereas the rest of the 85% (115) seats remain for the UT pool. While the Central Government fills the seats belonging to the Central pool, it is the UT administration which decides admission process for the UT pool seats.

Back in 2018, the UT administration committee headed by Dr. BS Chavan, Director-Principal of GMCH-32 had issued guidelines for MBBS admission in the State quota seats at the medical college, which is the only institute in the UT offering MBBS admission.