New Delhi: With Centre informing that it was not inclined to exempt Tamil Nadu from NEET marks for this year through an ordinance, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the State to admit students for MBBS/BDS on the basis of Neet based rankings forthwith.
This is a huge setback to State Board students who were expecting that the state would come out with an ordinance to allow admission to medical and dental colleges on the basis of higher secondary marks.
A three-judge Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Kurian Joseph and Amitav Roy while passing this order, extended the date of admissions for all institutions till September 4, as against the cut-off date of August 31.
The Bench made it clear that Neet based admissions would be applicable for all the Boards of examination. During the resumed hearing Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Bench that the Centre was not inclined to allow Tamil Nadu to promulgate an ordinance to exempt the State from Neet.
He said though the Union Law Ministry had cleared the draft ordinance, the Centre was not inclined to grant exemption.
Senior counsel Nalini Chidambaram and other lawyers appearing for CBSE/ State Board students who had cleared the NEET examination wanted the court to direct Tamil Nadu to admit students on the basis of NEET marks as there had already been an inordinate delay. They said the last date for medical admission was August 31 and hence the rank list should be published forthwith and admission process commenced immediately.
Senior counsel Shekar Naphade for Tamil Nadu faulted the Centre for not informing about its decision on 'ordinance’ at the earliest so that the state could have prepared for it. The petitioners said they apprehended that the Tamil nadu government is proposing an ordinance to get exemption from NEET. If such an ordinance is passed and presidential assent is given due to political pressure it would amount to a fraud on the Constitution.
They said after toiling hard for the last one year and getting reasonably good marks in NEET the state government is prevaricating and attempting at the last moment to change the criteria for admission to MBBS seats Government Medical Colleges and Government quota seats in Self Financing colleges in the state of Tamil Nadu from NEET based to Plus 2 marks in violation of this Court’s decisions.
They pointed out that the students started preparing for NEET even from the beginning of the academic year 2016-17. Some of the students even prepared for NEET giving up further studies.
The attempt by the Government of Tamil Nadu to show undue favour to Tamil Nadu State Board students Vis a Vis CBSE students by passing a G.O. providing for 85 % quota was struck down by the High court and upheld by the apex court. Thus it was the legitimate expectation of the students that admission to MBBS course in the academic year 2017-18 will be based only on NEET marks.
