Arbitrary action of the Karnataka Examination Authority in allotment of post graduate medical seat. Karnataka High Court imposes cost of Rs. 5 lakhs with a direction to allot the seat to the deserving candidate.

Rajini C.K. Vs The State of Karnataka and others.

Writ Petition 24070 of 2023 decided on 19 January 2024.

Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar and Justice T.G. Shivashankare Gowda.

3. Brief facts of the case are, petitioner is an in-service Doctor working in Anegola Primary Health Centre, K.R.Pete Taluk, Mandya District under the Department of Health and Family Welfare3 , Government of Karnataka. On 19.08.2023, the State Government issued a notification fixing 20% of seats in post graduation for in-service candidates. Pursuant to the notification, the Directorate of Medical Education4 published a Seat matrix for 315 seats.

5. Petitioner’s case is, she opted for ‘MD Radio Diagnosis’ at MRMC, Kalaburgi as her third option. According to her, on 19.09.2023, when she appeared for the second round of counselling, she was offered a seat in ‘MS- Obstetrics and Gynaecology’, which she opted. Later she learnt that on 20.10.2023, respondent No.6, who is from ESI Department was allotted the ‘MD radio Diagnosis’ seat at MRMC, Kalaburgi reserved for HFW Department. Feeling aggrieved, petitioner has filed this writ petition.

16. KEA is an instrumentality of the State Government. Candidates desirous of obtaining seats for the undergraduation and post-graduation courses repose immense trust with the KEA. Therefore, the KEA is bound to practice a fair and transparent method of allotment of seats. We repeatedly queried the learned Advocate for the KEA as to how the seat in MD Radio Diagnosis was made available on 06.10.2023, when it was already cancelled on 19.09.2023. It was sought to be explained by Shri. N.K. Ramesh that the result of second round counselling was ‘already run and finalised’ pending publication.

20. The critical analysis of the facts recorded hereinabove, clearly shows that after permitting Nagaraj to withdraw from participation in the counselling as early as on 19.09.2023, KEA continued to show the MD Radio Diagnosis seat as “available” even as on 06.10.2023 but made a dummy allotment in favour of Nagaraj who was not in the fray at all and that list was announced at 2:40 P.M. Obviously, for the candidates who appeared subsequently, MD Radio Diagnosis seat was not available. Petitioner was driven to a optionless situation, forced to accept whatever was available and she opted for a seat in Gynaecology. This is a rule of law society. Any illegal act by anyone much less an instrumentality of the State cannot be tolerated. It is unfortunate that the KEA has dealt with a post graduate medical seat in this fashion. So far as the contention urged by the KEA and the respondent No.6 that there could be more meritorious candidates than the petitioner and therefore, she is not entitled for MD Radio Diagnosis, we may record that no other candidate has approached this Court. We are conscious of the fact that it is very difficult to get a seat in post graduation seat in any disciplines in Medicine. Therefore, during the course of the argument, we also called upon the learned Advocate for the respondent No.6 to indicate whether respondent No.6 was agreeable to inter change the seat with the petitioner and we were informed that he was not ready to accept any other seat other that MD Radio Diagnosis.

ORDER

i. Writ petition is allowed with cost of Rs.5,00,000/- payable by the KEA, holding that allotment of MD Radio Diagnosis seat in favour respondent No.6 is wholly illegal and accordingly, it is set-aside.