Through this order, it is proposed to decide Writ Petitions, No. 3248/2011, 26493/2010, 1332/2011, 1940/2011 and 27067/2010.
2. The petitioners in all the aforesaid constitutional petitions are doctors in the employment of the Government of Punjab. An advertisement was issued soliciting applications for admission in various courses offered by the Postgraduate Medical Institute. The petitioners claim that they applied through proper channel for admission in various courses. It is also the case of the petitioners that the requisite NOCs were obtained by them from Respondent No. 1. After a selection process, the petitioners were found eligible for admission in the various courses and claim to have joined the same, whereafter they have been stopped from continuing their studies, apparently, pursuant to a letter dated 16th of November, 2010. In the said letter, it is provided that the doctors having less than 5 years' service (contract + regular) will not be allowed admission to various postgraduate diplomas. The said letter dated 16th of November, 2010 has been issued by Respondent No. 1 and it is the said letter which has been challenged through the instant constitutional petitions.
3. The learned counsels for the petitioners as well as the learned Assistant Advocate General, Punjab have been heard and the record, appended with these petitions, has been perused.
4. It is the case of the petitioners that they have been deprived of their vested rights and the letter in question is discriminatory. While, on the other hand, the learned Assistant Advocate General, Punjab has taken up the plea that issuance of the letter, on the one hand, is a policy matter which cannot be interfered with by this Court and secondly, conditions for admission can always be varied by the respondents at any point of time. It is added that the said letter was inter alia necessitated by the exigencies faced by the department including as a consequence of floods in 2010.
5. Without entering into the controversy as to whether the letter in question is in fact a policy matter and further whether such policy matter is adjustable by this Court, there can be no escape from the fact that once the petitioners had been granted NOCs, participated in the selection process and were duly admitted in the Postgraduate Medical Institute, a vested right has accrued to them and the same could not be withdrawn retrospectively, vide the letter impugned dated 16th of November, 2010. In the above circumstances, it would be illegal and also unfair and inequitable to deprive the petitioners of their admission in Postgraduate Medical Institute retrospectively through a subsequent decision, as reflected in the impugned order dated 16th of November, 2010. The said letter in fact imposes an additional condition for B admission i.e. 5 years' service. Such condition cannot be imposed retrospectively. The letter does not refer to any other administrative or emergent need.
6. Consequently, these writ petitions are disposed of in terms that the petitioners cannot be deprived of their admission in the Postgraduate Medical Institute solely on the basis of the impugned letter dated 16th of November, 2010 if otherwise entitled to and permitted by law to continue their studies.