Chandigarh, Nov. 5 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday rejected a format mandated by the UT administrations for MD/ MS admissions for the academic session 2026-27 seeking declaration that fathers/ forefathers of a scheduled caste (SC) candidates were bona fide residents of the city. Now, the court has directed the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector-32 to prepare merit list of SC candidates under the UT-pool with the declaration from the candidates mandating about their bona fide certification only. The high court bench of justice Suvir Sehgal and justice Rajesh Gaur acted on the petition of some course aspirants who claimed that they are bona fide SC category candidates but a format introduced by UT about SC category certification of their fathers/ forefathers also deprive them of consideration against the seats reserved for SC candidates under the state quota. GMCH has 155 seats for PG courses out of which 75 are for Central quota. Under the state quota 11 seats are reserved for SCs out of 76 seats. Four remaining seats are for candidates under EWS. UT argued that under Article 341 of the Constitution of India the benefit of reservation in SC category is restricted to the original state or UT. Upon migration, a person does not lose his/her SC status in the state/UT of origin, however, such status and reservation benefit cannot be carried to the migrated state/UT. The court said that there is no requirement in the prospectus that a candidate must establish that his/ her father or forefathers were residing in Chandigarh on or before November 1, 1966. Now, the court has directed the UT to prepare merit list on the basis of certification of candidates only....