The Delhi High Court termed as arbitrary and irrational a clause in the AIIMS prospectus due to which a candidate was denied admission in its Master of Dental Surgery MDS course despite a higher-ranked candidate opting out of the institute.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said that AIIMS should not have carried forward the vacant seat to the next academic session and asked it to
give admission to a student, who had secured sixth rank in the test, after the higher-ranking selected candidate did not take admission.
Justice Endlaw, writing the judgement, however, clarified that in future, it would be open for AIIMS to prescribe that the admission will not be granted to a student, who is below a particular rank, even if the seats are available.
The court's decision came on the plea of a student who had secured sixth rank in the examination held in July this
year for five general seats in MDS course and could not get the admission despite another student , ranked fourth, not taking the admission and joining some other institute, leaving
one seat vacant.
Instead of admitting Chopra, the AIIMS took refuge of the clause in the prospectus and carried forward the seat to next session.
The institute had five seats in the MDS course for general category students in the current academic session.