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News Topical, Digital Desk : The Supreme Court has criticised the Punjab government for adopting a "flexible" procedure for admission to MBBS and BDS courses under the sports quota for the 2024 session.
The court said that the admission criteria for academic courses cannot be changed once the process has begun. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe said that amending the recruitment criteria once the recruitment process has already begun is prohibited under the law.
Similarly, it is illegal not to fully define all aspects of the admission process before it begins. This allows relevant officials to set criteria to suit their own interests or allow nepotism. Transparency in such a process is crucial to ensure fairness and prevent arbitrariness.
"The procedure and practice adopted by Punjab of leaving the criteria flexible without specifying what the exact policy would be with regard to the field of consideration. Allowing itself sufficient flexibility and room to change the policy during the admission process is not in accordance with the principles of fair play," the bench said.
The Court also said, "Lack of transparency at the outset inevitably opens the door to arbitrariness and nepotism, which must be avoided by an egalitarian State."
The Supreme Court was hearing appeals filed by Divjot Sekhon and Shubkarman Singh against the criteria adopted by the Punjab government for admission to MBBS and BDS courses under the sports quota.
The court directed that Sekhon and Singh be accommodated in seats at a government medical college. The court held that the state and its institutions have a duty to act fairly and justly under Article 14 of the Constitution, and that any decision by the state must be reasonable and not arbitrary.
The bench said, "Giving policymakers some flexibility in policy formulation does not mean allowing arbitrariness or nepotism. Therefore, we find no merit in Punjab's arguments."
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