CHANDIGARH: A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court comprising Justice M, S. Liberian and Justice V.K. Bali on Aug.22, issued notice of motion for August 30 to the Punjab government on a writ petition filed by Punit Kaur challenging the nominations made to the medical Colleges in the state.

Deputy Advocate General Mukesh Berry accepted the notice On behalf of the state government.

Petitioner’s counsel Surya Kant Submitted that the Punjab Chief Minister issued the orders without verifying the applications received for admission against the nomination quota and overlooking the academic merit marks secured in the entrance test and genuineness of the applications. There was absolutely no application of mind while passing the orders dated August 10 as not a single application claiming admission from the nominee quota was examined. No interview was held as required under clause 4.3 of the prospectus. The candidate nominated were much below the merit as compared to the petitioner.

The petition stated that admissions had been granted under this Category purely on account of extraneous considerations.

favoritism and nepotism, One of the nominee was the son of the Chief Secretary while two of them happened to be the wards of the sitting MLAs, Yet one another nominee was the relation of the former chief minister and yet another was the daughter of some influential person having close affiliation with the Chief Minister. It was picked and chooses policy which carried weight with the Chief Minister.

The petitioner prayed that the exercise of all administrative powers vested in public authority must be structured within a system of Control. There had been no desirable criteria framed for admissions to the MBBS course under the Category of state nominee.

 The petitioner submitted that her father H’S, Mattowal served the State Of Punjab as advocate general for two years under critical condition and as a result thereof, her uncle braved two attempts on his life by the militants. Moreover, she enjoyed meritorious academic record throughout.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 26, 1994