Dr. Jasheet Singh Bhullar vs State of Punjab

R.L. Anand, J.—By this order I dispose of as many as three writ petitions; No. 10963 of 2000 titled Dr. Jasneet Singh Bhullar v. State of Punjab and others, No. 11891 of 2000 titled Dr. Samarjit Singh v. State of Punjab & others and No. 11004 of 2000 titled Dr. Man-inder Singh Sidhu v. State of Punjab and others, as in my opinion all the writ petitions can be disposed of by a commpn order.

The point in controversy for the disposal of all these writ petitions is common, i.e. whether a candidate who has participated in sports events when he was undertaking the training while doing his internship should be accounted for the purposes of grading and allied matters ,and for the purpose of issuance of sport certificate.

Some facts can be noticed in the following manner :-

Dr. Jasneet Singh Bhullar, Dr. Samarjit Singh, Dr. Maninder Singh Sidhu and Dr. Sukhdeep Kaur are the sports candidates. They were seeking admission to the postgraduate MD/MS Course. Two candidates namely Dr. Samarjit Singh and Dr. Sukhdeep Kaur, in fact have been given the admission. The grouse of two petitioners i.e. Dr. Jasneet Singh Bhullar and Dr. Maninder Singh is that the admission to Dr. Samarjit Singh and Dr. Sukhdeep Kaur has been illegally granted and that they have a better merit in sports category as compared to respondents No. 8 and 9 of Civil Writ Petition No. 10963 of 2000.

The short point for determination is that what is the academic course for the purpose of recognising this events. Note No. 3 of the prospectus appearing at page No. 7 runs as follows :-

"Allotment of seats of category (c) above will be on the basis of Sports Gradation Certificate issued by the Deptt. of Sports and Youth Services as per their Notification No. 47/26/83-ISS/12036 dated 10th December, 1997 for the achievements in the sports during the M.B.B.S./B.D.S./B.A.M.S. academic course."

"Academic course" has not been defined or enunciated in the prospectus itself and in these circumstances I shall nave to take the assistance of other relevant provisions or regulations in order to determine what is "academic course". In the Medical Council of India Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997 it is stated as follows under the head Training Period and Time Distribution :-

"Every student shall undergo a period of certified study extending over 4-1/2 academic years divided into 9 semesters, (i.e. of 6 months each) from the date of commencement of his study for the subjects comprising the medical curriculum to the date of completion of examination and followed by one year compulsory rotating internship. Each semester will consist of approximately 120 teaching days of 8 hours each college working time, including one hour of lunch".

In Chapter No. 5 of the said Regulations, while defining Assessment of Internship", it has been inter alia laid down as follows :-

"The intern shall maintain a record of work which is to be verified and certified by the medical officer under whom he works. Apart from scrutiny of the record of work, assessment and evaluation of training shall be undertaken by an objective approach using situation tests in knowledge, skills and attitude during and at the end of training. Based on the record of work and date of evaluation, the Dean/Principal shall issue certificate of satisfactory completion of training, following which the university shall award the MBBS degree or declare him eligible for it."

There are other parameters also laid down under the heading "Assessment of Internship" but for my purpose it may not be necessary to incorporate them in the present order. Yet I can quote with advantage the extract from the calendar of Guru Nanak Dev University, Vol. II, which is being adopted by Baba Farid University and under the heading of Duration of Course it is mentioned as follows ;-

"The examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery shall consist of 4-1/2 academic years divided into 9 semesters (i.e. 6 months each) from the date of commencement of study for the subjects comprising medical curriculum to the date of completion of examination. The period of 4-1/2 years will be divided into 3 phases. First Professional (Phase-I) Second Professional (Phase-II) Third Professional (Phase-III) Throughout the whole period of study the attention of student shall be directed by his teachers to the importance of the preventive aspects of medicine and of measures for preservation of positive health."

Under the heading Compulsory rotating housemanslip, as mentioned in Regulation 23(a), it has been stipulated as follows :-

"Every candidate, on passing the final MBBS examination shall undergo 12 months training as laid down by the Faculty of Medical Sciences before he is allowed full registration by the State Medical Council. The work done in a Military Hospital or any other recognised Institute (names given in the appendix) shall be accepted for this training."

Sub-clause (b) of Regulation 23 lays down as follows :-

"There shall be an oral test at the end of the internship programme to be conducted by a Board of the College set up by the Principal of the College...."

Under the heading ''Award of Degree'' it has been stipulated as follows :-

"Candidates shall be granted a degree only after they have completed the post-examination training."

We all know that first a candidate undertakes his different semesters and then he gets a degree of MBBS. Then it is obligatory upon such candidate to get internship training for one year and then he is awarded a degree at the convocation held by the University. Without internship degree is never conferred to a candidate though he is declared pass in MBBS course.

Dr. Balram Gupta, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of Dr. Samarjit Singh, wanted to give a narrow interpretation to the words "academic course". He was of the view that "academic course" is the only duration when a medical candidate is getting training in a medical institute/medical college and the training given to such a candidate while he was in the internship period should not be taken as "academic course". The submission of Dr. Balram Gupta, in my opinion, cannot be accepted. I have just quoted above the relevant provisions to show that without internship a MBBS decree is not complete. Internship is an integral part of the Course. The Medical Council of India has laid down a condition that a medical candidate is bound to undertake one year internship with a purpose. The purpose is very obvious that such a candidate must get a practical knowledge also, from, a competent doctor, and that his theoretical knowledge is not complete itself, to become a doctor in order to run a medical profession. It has been conceded at the Bar that without internship the University does not confer a degree. A candidate, who has passed MBBS examination, even cannot get a job unless he possess a degree granted by a recognised university.

In these circumstances, there is no hesitation on my part to hold that internship is a part of the academic course and if a medical candidate participates in any event when he is undertaking internship that event has also to be evaluated, assessed and taken note of by the Director of Sports while issuing the gradation certificate. Admittedly, the Director Sports has not taken into consideration the achievements or participation of the candidates when they were doing internship course, therefore the certificate which has been issued by the Director Sports in favour of Dr. Samarjit Singh and Dr. Sukhjeet Kaur for the time being cannot be taken as a final word. With this finding I give directions to the Director Sports to take into consideration the achievements of sports of all the four candidates by giving allowance of those events in which they have participated during the period of internship to redraw the merit and issue fresh grading sports certificate. It is hereby clarified that it is always within the competency of the Director Sports to see whether the participation of Dr. Jasneet Singh Bhullar in Mavlankar Shooting Competition can be considered as valid or not as per the policy laid down in Annexure R1. The directions of this Court shall be complied with by the Director Sports within 15 days from the receipt of the copy of the order. Thereafter, on the basis of the fresh merit drawn by the Director Sports, Baba Farid University will act accordingly and the Chairman of the Selection Committee for Admission to MD/MS Course-2000 shall allocate the seats within 15 days from the receipt of the merit list from the office of the Director Sports.

Copy of the order be given Dasti to counsel for the parties.

All the three writ petition stand disposed of.

Petition disposed of.