Orissa High Court

Cuttack, Feb. 13: The controversy over fixing two cut-off dates — one for in-service candidates and another for fresh candidates — to select for admission into postgraduate (medical) courses in the three government medical colleges in Odisha in 2012 has intensified in the high court here.

While acting on a petition on February 3, a single-judge bench had ordered for one cut-off date. However, the order has been challenged on the ground that it changes norms of selection when the process is mid-way.

Entrance examination for admission into post-graduate courses in Odisha’s government medical colleges was held on January 22, while counselling for the same has been scheduled on February 17 and 18. According to the prospectus for postgraduate (medical) selection in Odisha this year, 176 seats are available in the three government medical colleges for the academic session 2012. Of these, 87 are reserved for in-service candidates.

The Postgraduate (Medical) Selection Committee – 2012, Odisha, had fixed March 31, 2012, for candidates who had not completed their MBBS degree and are in the final year of their course (internship) and allowed them to apply for postgraduate courses with an undertaking to complete their internship by that date.

For candidates who have already completed MBBS course and given one or more years of service in tribal, rural/backward areas, the cut-off date was fixed as December 31, 2011, for the purpose of extending an additional weightage of 10 per cent of mark secured in postgraduate entrance examination.

Controversy had sparked with three in-service candidates alleging that “two different dates make it arbitrary and discriminatory and amount to providing two dates of eligibility”.

The petitioners sought intervention of the high court for alteration of cut-off date for them from December 31, 2011 to March 31, 2012. They claimed that with the present cut-off date, they would be deprived of the benefits of one year of service (as they would complete two years of service by March 31, 2012).

Adjudicating on the petition, the single-judge bench of Justice Sanju Panda on February 3 ruled that there was no justification for fixing two cut-off dates and directed the authorities concerned to fix March 31, 2012 as the new cut-off date instead of March 31, 2011, for in-service candidates, and give additional weightage of marks and prepare merit list accordingly. But on February 7, three other in-service candidates filed a writ appeal against the order of the single-judge bench on the ground that such alteration changes their merit position. “It changes the norms of selection in the midway, that also after the entrance examinations are over, thereby making unqualified person to become qualified,” the writ appeal contended.

After a hearing on February 9, the division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra took up the writ appeal for further hearing today. The next date of hearing has been fixed for February 15.