Private medical colleges, Article 12 and mandamus: certiorari and merit-based admission rights were both rejected.

A privately owned and privately managed non-statutory medical college was treated as outside certiorari because such writs lie only against bodies under a duty to act judicially. The college was also held not to be an instrumentality or agency of the State under Article 12, as the control exercised through the Medical Council and the University was regulatory rather than deep and pervasive. Regulation II of the Medical Council of India was regarded as directory, so it did not create an enforceable public duty for mandamus. Article 29(2) was construed as a limited anti-discrimination guarantee, not a general right to merit-based admission in aided private institutions.

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Issues: (i) whether a writ of certiorari lies against a privately owned and privately managed non-statutory medical college and hospital; (ii) whether such an institution is an instrumentality or agency of the State within Article 12; (iii) whether Regulation II of the Medical Council of India imposes a statutory public duty enforceable by mandamus; and (iv) whether Article 29(2) confers a general fundamental right of admission on merit in privately managed educational institutions receiving State aid.

Issue (i): whether a writ of certiorari lies against a privately owned and privately managed non-statutory medical college and hospital.

Analysis: Certiorari was held to lie only against a body enjoined to act judicially. The institution was a private, non-statutory body, and the settled law within the jurisdiction had already rejected certiorari against such a body.

Conclusion: The writ of certiorari did not lie, and the challenge to the provisional selection was not maintainable.

Issue (ii): whether such an institution is an instrumentality or agency of the State within Article 12.

Analysis: The control relied upon through the Medical Council of India and the University was found to be limited and regulatory, not deep and pervasive. The Medical Council was an autonomous statutory body with an elected composition, the College received less than 25% of its expenditure as State aid, and none of the recognised indicia of State instrumentality was satisfied.

Conclusion: The medical college and hospital was not an instrumentality or agency of the State.

Issue (iii): whether Regulation II of the Medical Council of India imposes a statutory public duty enforceable by mandamus.

Analysis: Regulation II was held to be directory and in the nature of a recommendation, without statutory force sufficient to create an enforceable public duty. A writ of mandamus requires both a clear public or statutory duty and a corresponding legal right.

Conclusion: No mandamus could issue on the basis of Regulation II.

Issue (iv): whether Article 29(2) confers a general fundamental right of admission on merit in privately managed educational institutions receiving State aid.

Analysis: Article 29(2) was construed as a limited prohibition against discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste and language in State-aided institutions, not as a general right of equal admission on merit. Reading it otherwise would conflict with the constitutional protection of minority educational institutions under Articles 29 and 30.

Conclusion: Article 29(2) did not confer the asserted general right of admission on merit.

Final Conclusion: The consolidated legal effect of the decision is that the writ petitions failed on all substantive grounds, because the private medical college was outside the reach of certiorari, was not a State instrumentality, and no enforceable mandamus or general admission right arose under the constitutional or regulatory provisions invoked.

Ratio Decidendi: A privately owned and privately managed non-statutory educational institution is not amenable to certiorari or mandamus unless a clear statutory duty and corresponding legal right are shown, and Article 29(2) does not create a general right of merit-based admission in such institutions.

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