Supreme Court warns Punjab - do not change the admission criteria once the process starts (file photo)
PTI, New Delhi. The Supreme Court has criticized the Punjab government for adopting a "flexible" process for admission to MBBS and BDS courses under sports quota for the 2024 session.
The Court said that once the process has started, the admission criteria for academic courses cannot be changed. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe said that amending the recruitment criteria as soon as the recruitment process begins is prohibited under law.
Similarly, it is also illegal not to fully define the admission process in all aspects before its commencement. This gives the concerned authorities the opportunity to set norms according to their interests or allow nepotism. Transparency of such a process is of utmost importance to ensure fairness and prevent arbitrariness.
The bench said, “The process and practice of leaving the norms flexible as adopted by Punjab did not make it clear as to what would be the precise policy with regard to the scope of consideration? “Allowing ourselves sufficient flexibility and room to change the policy during the admission process is not in accordance with the principles of fair play.”
The Court also said, "Lack of transparency at the outset inevitably opens the door to arbitrariness and nepotism, which must be avoided by an equitable State."
The Supreme Court was hearing appeals that were filed by Divjot Sekhon and Shubhakarman Singh against the criteria adopted by the Punjab government for admission to MBBS and BDS courses under sports quota.
The court directed that Sekhon and Singh be accommodated in seats in the Government Medical College. The Court said that it is the duty of the State and its institutions to act in a fair and reasonable manner as per Article 14 of the Constitution and any decision of the State should be rational and not arbitrary.
The bench said, “Giving the policy maker some flexibility in formulating policy does not mean allowing arbitrariness or nepotism. Therefore, we do not find any merit in the arguments of Punjab.