The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by three doctors who sought the quashing of regulation 9(3) of the postgraduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations 2018 to the extent that it provides for minimum marks of 50th percentile as a mandatory requirement for the admission to postgraduate courses.

The bench of Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramoniam Prasad on Friday while dismissing the petition said, “the question of quashing the statutory provision in the peculiar circumstances of the case does not arise merely because a large number of seats are lying vacant.”

The court also observed that the lowering of the standards of medical education has the potential of wreaking havoc in society at large– due to the risk that the practice of medicine entails– as it involves in its ambit the matter of life and death and therefore it would be unconscionable for this court to interfere in the standards duly and diligently set by the governing authority.

“This court therefore cannot issue a mandamus directing the respondents to fill up the seats, especially when the persons concerned have not obtained the minimum percentile as this court is dealing with admissions to postgraduate courses in various medical colleges and there can’t be any compromise on the issue of quality of doctors/ specialists as it involves the risk of human lives. Resultantly, no case for interference is made out in the matter,” the Court said in its judgement.

The court noted that the petitioners’ primary grievance is that the percentile system prescribed under Regulation 9(3) of the amended Regulation is a faulty system as, on account of the percentile system, a large number of seats are lying vacant even though candidates who are efficient and willing are available.

The main thrust of the arguments of the petitioners is that on account of the percentile system, as the candidates have not been securing the 50th percentile, a large number of seats are not being filled and it is a national loss as it obstructs the doctors from obtaining postgraduate qualifications.

The petitioners further stated that on account of the faulty system which has been adopted by the respondents, the last minute applications are being filed to fill the unfilled seats and, said that this process leads to unscrupulous methods being adopted by colleges in granting admission wherever any such relaxation for reducing the percentile exists.

It has also been stated that there is a huge shortage of doctors who are specialists in the subject of Pathology, Microbiology and Anesthesiology, and a large number of seats are vacant on account of a faulty percentile system, therefore, the amendment in the Regulations deserves to be declared as ultra vires, the court noted.