New Delhi, July 3: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said the formula adopted by AIIMS for allocation of seats to various categories in the Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) course, which commenced from July this year, is "not just and fair" as no seat was reserved for OBC category.
The court, however, declined to interfere with this year's course and asked the Centre and AIIMS to allocate seats as per the provisions in the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act in future.
"The formula adopted by respondent 1 (AIIMS) is not in conformity with the legislative mandate since sometimes the reserved category candidates are getting more than their due shares and sometimes they are not getting the share which ought to have come to them....," Justice V K Jain said.
The court order came while disposing of a plea filed by one Anusar Gupta, first rank holder in OBC category in post- graduate MDS course, who was refused admission on OBC seat in the institute for this year's course.
"There is no legal sanctity behind the formula adopted by AIIMS for allocation of seats amongst various categories in the MDS course. Considering the meagre number of seats available in various specialities, the legislative mandate cannot be achieved in case the formula adopted by respondent No1 is allowed to continue.
Whether the legislative mandate can be achieved by treating all the seats in MDS, irrespective of the speciality, as one branch of study and providing reservation accordingly in terms of Section 3 of the Act, is for the respondent No 1 to examine. But the formula applied by it is neither legal nor just and fair," the court also said.
The court rejected Gupta's plea for a direction to AIIMS to reserve 27 percent seats out of total seats for OBC category in MDS course and allow him for the admission.
"I am of the view that the admission process requires no interference by the court and should be allowed to be completed as per the allocation notified in the prospectus," the court said in a judgement adding "however, for future admissions, AIIMS is directed to examine the matter afresh in the light of the provisions contained in Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act.
"And the anomalies pointed out in this order and take a fresh decision in the matter of providing reservation to SC/ST/OBC candidates in admission to MDS course, in consultation with Union of India, within two months," it said.
Filing the plea through counsel Nitin Kumar Gupta, the petitioner said there are five seats alloted for MDS course but not a single seat has been reserved by the institute this year for OBC category students, which is illegal as there is a provision of 27 percent reservation of seats for OBC candidates in every institute.
The plea said "he has been denied admission in OBC category due to wrong and illegal calculation or allocation of seats for OBC candidates, wherein not even a single seat has been reserved for OBC candidates (27 percent reservation) despite having a total of five seats."
His counsel told the court that AIIMS has failed to adhere to allocation of 27 percent total seats for OBC category candidates, which is contrary to the settled law.
The plea said AIIMS has "wrongfully" combined MD/MS seats with MDS seats though the two courses belong to completely different categories. MD/MS degrees are for medical courses whereas MDS degree is for dental course.
"AIIMS has combined all the 121 seats (for MD/MS courses and MDS course) and allocated the 27 percent reservation i.E. 33 seats to MD/MS courses and not even a single seat to MDS course" the plea said.
