Punjab and Haryana High Court directs re-evaluation of admission criteria

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, November 17

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has called for re-examination of admission criteria that resulted in ousting a student, who completed their graduation in Chandigarh, but was deemed ineligible for admission in M. Phil in UT quota solely based on obtaining Master’s degree from outside.

The direction by the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Nidhi Gupta came on a petition challenging seat allotment for M. Phil (Clinical Psychology) at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh.

“Direction is being given to the respondents to re-examine the criteria as to how a student who has studied till graduation in Chandigarh, can be held ineligible in Chandigarh quota only on the ground that he/she done her Master’s degree from outside Chandigarh. A report in this regard be submitted to this court on or before the next date of hearing,” the Bench asserted.

In its detailed order, the Bench also directed provisional admission for the student, while making it clear that the matter was not to be treated as a precedent. Elaborating, the Bench asserted the petitioner’s prayer for provisional admission was being examined keeping in view a vacant seat and the fact that she had scored 81marks in the entrance examination, while the last candidate in the Chandigarh quota had got 77 marks. Besides this, she had done her schooling and graduation in Chandigarh,

In her petition through advocates Raman B. Garg and Mayank Garg with counsel Gitanjali Chhabra and Pallavi Gujral, petitioner Rajita Kaushal had initially referred to the prospectus for the 2023 session before contending that 85 per cent of the seats were reserved for candidates from the Union Territory pool.

The category included candidates with Chandigarh background. Another criterion for admission was that the candidates must have passed qualifying examinations from the college/institutions situated in Union Territory.

The petitioner’s case was that seats were allocated to candidates, who did not meet the residency criteria. It was contended that seats of M. Phil (Clinical Psychology) were allotted to respondent-candidates, who had only done Masters in Psychology from Panjab University, but they did not belong to Chandigarh.

The petitioner’s admission, on the other hand, was being disallowed on the ground that she had obtained degree of Master of Arts in Applied Psychology (Clinical & Counseling Practice) from Mumbai, even though she had done all her studies from Chandigarh and her parents also belonged to the city. The Bench was also told that 10 seats had been approved for M. Phil. (Clinical-Psychology) in Government Medical College & Hospital. But only eight had been advertised as per the list of approved institutions

On a specific query by the court, UT counsel during the course of hearing submitted that seven out of total eight were meant for Chandigarh quota. But one candidate had left the course.