Supreme Court red signal to ‘Karnataka origin’ criterion for Govt seats in PG Medical courses

The Supreme Court today held that a condition mandating ‘Karnataka origin’ as a criterion to be eligible for government seats in post-graduate Medical courses is unconstitutional..The judgment was delivered by a Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit in a petition by Dr. Kriti Lakhina challenging clause 4.1 of an Information Bulletin jointly issued by Directorate of Medical Education of Karnataka and Karnataka Examinations Authority..The information bulletin published on March 10, 2018 laid down ‘Karnataka origin’ as a condition to be eligible for government seats in post graduate medical courses..A person was considered to be of Karnataka origin if he/ she satisfied either of the following:.“(i) A candidate who has studied and passed in one or more Government or Government recognized, educational institutions located in the State of Karnataka for a minimum period of TEN academic years as on the 31st March, 2018, commencing for 1st standard to MBBS/BDS and must have appeared and passed either SSLC/10th standard or 2nd PUC/12th standard examination from Karnataka State. In case of the candidate who has taken more than one year to pass a class or standard, the year of academic study is counted as one year only or .ii) The candidate should have studied and passed 1st and 2nd year Pre-University Examination or 11th or 12th standard examination within the State of Karnataka from an Educational Institution run or recognized by the State Government or MBBS/BDS from a professional educational institution located in Karnataka and that either of the parents must have studied/resided in Karnataka for a minimum period of 10 years.”.The Court heard Senior Advocate Amrendra Sharan, who appeared for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Basavaprabhu S Patil, who represented the State of Karnataka and advocate Gaurav Sharma appearing for MCI..It held that the matter was squarely covered by its 2014 judgment in Vishal Goyal and Others v. State of Karnataka and Others wherein the Court had struck down a similar condition for being violative of Article 14..“The relevant clause under consideration, namely, Clause 4.1 of the Information Bulletin for PGET-2018 is identical in substance to the one that was considered in Vishal Goyal (supra). The matter is thus no longer resintegra and is completely covered by the decision in Vishal Goyal (supra). .It, therefore, struck down clause 4.1 of the Information Bulletin..In the circumstances, we respectfully follow the decision of this Court in Vishal Goyal (supra) and hold Clause 4.1 of the Information Bulletin (PGET-2018) which was published on the website on 10.03.2018 to be invalid to the extent it disqualifies petitioners and similarly situated candidates who completed their MBBS/BDS Degree Courses from colleges situated in Karnataka from competing for admission to Post-Graduate medical/Dental Courses in Government Medical Colleges and against government quota seats in non-governmental institutions.”.It also directed the State of Karnataka to modify the Information Bulletin in keeping with the observations made in the judgment and re-publish the Calendar of Events and complete the admission process within the timeline stipulated by the concerned regulatory authorities..Read the judgment below.