The Supreme Court of India condoned the delay in filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) by MBBS students Dmandeep Kaur and another, and issued notice to the Union of India in their challenge to a judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dated 6 May 2025.
The petitioners, MBBS students, have preferred the present Special Leave Petition against the final judgment dated 06.05.2025 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in CWP No. 24261 of 2023, whereby their plea to quash the public notice dated 03.10.2023 of the National Medical Commission and to give retrospective effect to the corrigendum dated 01.09.2023 was dismissed. It was submitted that the corrigendum, being clarificatory in nature, ought to have been read as part of the original CBME Guidelines dated 01.08.2023, and denial of its benefit had resulted in serious prejudice to the petitioners, amounting to violation of the Right to Equality guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution of India, as the petitioners have been arbitrarily discriminated against from proceeding to the next academic phase despite being eligible under the corrigendum.
It was contended that the High Court failed to take into consideration the judgments of the Kerala High Court in National Medical Commission v. Antony P. Alappat & Ors. [2025 KER 22334] and of the Madras High Court in The Controller of Examinations, Pondicherry University v. Megha Maria Joe & Ors. [WA-333/2024], which had arisen from similar facts and circumstances and carried persuasive value.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice, Justice K. Vinod Chandran, and Justice N.V. Anjaria directed, by way of an interim order, that the petitioners be permitted to continue with their ongoing courses, subject to the outcome of the present SLP. The matter had been tagged with Diary No. 26977 of 2025, where similar issues were pending before the Court.
Appearances:
For the Petitioners: Mr. Swarnendu Chatterjee, AOR, Mr. Aditya Anand, Ms. Deepakshi Garg, and Ms. Harshita Rawat, Advocates.
For the Respondents: —
