Chandigarh, Sept. 25 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has quashed the merit list prepared by Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, for the Other BackwardClass (OBC) candidates under the UT pool for admission to the MBBS course for the 2026-27 academic session. This comes days after the court quashed the merit list for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates under the UT pool onSeptember 16. The bench of justice Suvir Shegal and justice Rajesh Gaur acted on a bunch of petitions challenging the final list of August 20, that treated "migrant OBC candidates" as general candidates, thereby denying them the reservation. GMCH has 200 MBBS seats in all, out of which, 156 are for UT pool candidates, including reserved seats, while the remaining seats are for all-India quota, foreign and NRI students. The OBC category of UT pool had 11 seats. The students had claimed that the prospectus did not distinguish between those candidates having OBC status of other states - termed as "migrated OBCs"- and those whose fathers and forefathers lived in the city. In the merit list, migrated OBC candidates were treated as general category candidates. The court observed that in the prospectus released by the GMCH, an OBC candidate was required to produce the prescribed OBC certificate from the designated authority within UT. It did not have any other requirement laid down in the clauses. It found that 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, 1966. Further, there was no stipulation that a candidate, whose certificate bears the expression "migrant", would automatically be treated as a general category candidate. In its September 16 judgement in the case of SC category candidates, the court had held that the rules of the game, meaning the criteria for selection, cannot be modified after the process of selection has begun. "This bench observed that the prospectus constitutes a declared norm by which eligibility, scrutiny, preparation of merit and admission has to be regulated. An educational institution or an admitting authority, which has framed the prospectus, is as much bound by the norms laid down therein as the candidate, who seeks admission thereunder," it asserted. The court also rejected the UT's argument of October 2018 instructions from the Centre mandating that an OBC person migrating from one state/UT to another, would retain the status in the state/UT of origin and cannot claim corresponding benefits in the migrated state/UT. "In case these instructions are read into the prospectus, it would result in a modification of the prospectus, which is impermissible. It would mean that respondents have altered the original prospectus and introduced a new eligibility condition.," the court said, adding that some of the candidates, who are otherwise eligible to be considered for admission as per the plain reading of the prospectus, have become ineligible. Now, the GMCH has been directed to revise the merit list according to the conditions laid down in the prospectus as expeditiously as possible and also treat those with "migrated OBC certificates" eligible for OBC seats of UT pool. The court, however, said that the judgment will not be an impediment for the authorities from prescribing an admission criteria based on instructions of the Government of India, from the next academic session....