New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday came
down heavily on an Army Medical college for not complying with
the judicial orders by going ahead with reserving 100 per cent
seats for the wards of defence personnel.
The court also sought the assistance of the Attorney
General to examine the feasibility of take over of the Army
Medial College run by Guru Govind Singh Indraprashtha
University (GGSIPU).
"We request the Attorney General to assist the court
on the issue," a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra
and Justice Sanjeev Khanna said while pulling up the college
for running it according to their "whims and fancies".
"On perusal of the affidavit filed by the college, it
appears that they have all the powers on the earth to close
the college at their whims and fancies and no authority can
compel them to run the college," the bench said.
"Just because the land has been alloted (to them) by
the Defece Ministry, they think they are enjoying immunity and
are not amenable to writ jurisdiction," it added.
The court during the last hearing had expressed its
displeasure over the Army Medical College`s decision against
holding entrance test for current academic session allegedly
to evade an apex court order.
The bench`s remarks had come on a plea by a student
alleging that in a recent order the Supreme Court has directed
the college not to reserve 100 percent for the wards of the
army personnel but to reserve only 5 percent of the total
number of seats for them, while keeping open the rest 95
percent for civilians.
"The conduct of the college is not only violative of
university regulations but also clearly against the Supreme
Court order," the bench had said in previous hearing asking
the university to explore if the college could be taken over
by it.
The court had also impleaded the Medical Council of
India (MCI), and sought details of procedure for affiliation
of the college to it.
Appearing for the student, counsel Aman Hingorani had
told the court that despite the apex court`s order, the
college has issued an advertisement saying the management has
decided not to take any admission in the MBBS class for the
current year on the ground of financial difficulty.
The college, run by the Army Welfare Society, used to
give admission 100 percent reservation to the children of its
personnel but the apex court had recently declared it as
violative of the basic principles of democratic governance and
said only 5 percent could be reserved for them.
The university counsel, however, submitted that the
University has issued a notification to the college for
withdrawal of its advertisement as it superseded the apex
court order.
In addition to providing court masters` reports, the CIC
also directed the High Court to locate a cumulative report, if
any, about the cases where decisions have been reserved and
provide it to the applicant.
"If a cumulative list of such pending reserved orders in
the High Court is being compiled anywhere in the High Court
including the office of the Chief Justice, it would also
suffice to provide a copy of that to the appellant," Mishra
directed.
The Chief Information Commissioner said that disclosure
of list of cases where decision has been reserved by judges of
the High Court would serve the larger public interest "as the
litigating public would come to know about the time being
taken by the High Court in finally disposing of the cases."
"It is well-known that the pendency of cases before the
courts is one of the major concerns among the people," he
said.
PTI
