New MBBS admission rules: HC issues notice to UT Admin

The petition has been filed by Ananya Goswami, through counsels, Amar Vivek Aggarwal and Shiva Prashar and was heard by the bench of Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Justice Vikas Suri

The plea said that since 1992, the Chandigarh Administration has been following the Union government’s directives and granting waiver of domiciliary conditions to category of wards of Defence personnel, thus not mandating them to pass Class 10 Plus 2 from Chandigarh schools and has been treating them as UT pool candidates against 85% admission quota. The Chandigarh Administration has itself framed a scheme in 2007 whereby special consideration was to given to wards of Defence personnel, the counsels for the petitioners said.

It was further submitted that while in Ashu Hooda’s case in August 2018, the High Court had directed the Chandigarh Administration to adhere to the condition of mandating passing of 3 years of studies – Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12 — from Chandigarh Schools, the Chandigarh Administration introduced the said condition in a staggered manner spread over three years for the General Category candidates. On the other hand, acting in a grossly discriminatory manner, much after the issuance of NEET notification on April 6, 2022, the Chandigarh Administration introduced new policy on July 15, 2022, restricting the Defence personnel benefits only to those who had permanent residences in Chandigarh at the time of entry into service.

The petitioner further argued that such a harsh condition made the concession to wards of Defence wards as purposeless , because a Defence personnel belonged to whole of the country and he ought to be given option of choosing at least one state quota as per his/her choice.

After hearing the counsel for the petitioners at length the High Court issued notice and fixed the next date for hearing as August 23, 2022.