No 85 per cent Tamil Nadu state board quota in medical seats

Chennai: In a major setback to the students who studied under the TN state board syllabus, the Madras high court on Monday dismissed a batch of appeals from the State challenging a single judge order quashing the provision of 85% reservation in the government quota of UG medical seats. This is also a blow to the AIADMK government, which has been consistently opposing Neet. The division bench also said it was hoping the admission process to MBBS/BDS courses will not be delayed any further.

Dismissing the batch of appeals from government and six state board students, a division bench comprising Justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and M.Dhandapani said, “We are of the opinion that these appeals lack merit and they deserve to be dismissed. We only hope and trust that the process of admission to MBBS / BDS courses for academic year 2017-18 will not be delayed any further in as much as the last date set for such admission expires by August 31. Hence, the state government shall take all necessary steps expeditiously from now on to accomplish the task of filling up of the seats in MBBS/BDS course before the deadline approaches. Accordingly, all the appeals are dismissed”.

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao said the objective sought to be achieved by this policy decision has no connection with the classification attempted. The spelt out objective was to ensure fair and equal opportunities to all the students, who have pursued the eligibility examination, namely, +2 course, through various boards, in the matter of admission to MBBS / BDS courses against the available state quota seats. That objective stands accomplished already when all the students, drawn from state board as well as other boards such as CBSE etc., have appeared at the Neet examination held on May 7, pursuant to introduction of section 10D to the Indian Medical Council Act. In other words, equal opportunity to all the students across the board has been secured by their appearing at the Neet examination and testing their merit by a common standard/yardstick, the bench added.

The bench said once the Neet examination has been taken by all the competing students, no one has been denied or deprived of any fair opportunity to secure appropriate ranking based upon his or her meritorious performance commensurate with the knowledge acquired while pursuing +2 course.

The very objective of providing equal opportunities to all the students and also providing a level playing field for everyone to establish his individual merit, having already been accomplished, the further allotment, on pro-rata basis, of seats at 85 percent and 15 percent and allocating 85 of the seats to those, 12th standard students, who have pursued the said course from the TN state board was an artificial one. This was an attempt of further classification amongst all the students, who have appeared for the entrance examination, namely Neet.

“We are therefore, of the opinion, that the impugned policy decision, which attempted at a classification, is an arbitrary one being artificial and it has no nexus with the object sought to be achieved", the bench added.