Chandigarh, Sept. 18 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has quashed the merit list prepared by Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates under the UT pool for admission to the MBBS course for the 2026-27 session. The HC bench of justice Suvir Shegal and justice Rajesh Gaur acted on a clutch of petitions challenging the final list, which treated "migrant SC candidates" as general candidates, thereby denying them the reservation. GMCH has 200 MBBS seats in all, out of which, 156 is for UT pool candidates, including reserved seats, while the remaining seats are for all-India quota, foreign and NRI students. The students had claimed that the prospectus did not distinguish between those candidates having SC status of other states - termed as "migrated SCs"- and those whose fathers and forefathers lived in the city. In the merit list, migrated SC candidates were treated as general category candidates. The court found that in the prospectus released by the GMCH, an SC candidate was required to produce the prescribed SC certificate from the designated authority within UT. It did not have any other requirement laid down in the clauses. The criterion also did not say that a candidate must prove that his/her father, grandfather or forefather was residing in Chandigarh before November 1, 1996. Further, there was no stipulation that a candidate, whose certificate bears the expression "migrant", would automatically be treated as a general category candidate. "In case the respondents intended to confine the benefit of reservation to SC candidates of Chandigarh origin, it was required to be categorically mentioned in the prospectus, however, the same has not been done," the bench said. "Applying such a condition after the candidates had applied would amount to "altering the rules of the game after the game has begun"," it asserted. Now, the GMCH has been told to revise the merit list within 10 days and also treat those with "migrated SC certificates" eligible for SC seats of UT pool. The authorities may, however, change criterion from the next academic session....