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| Thursday, Jun 22, 2006
Medical admissions: orders today
Chennai: The Madras High Court is to pass orders on Thursday
on a public interest litigation petition seeking admission to
MBBS/BDS courses only the basis of a common entrance examination.
The First Bench comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice D. Murugesan reserved the orders after senior counsel K.M. Vijayan, advocate Ayyathurai and Advocate-General R. Viduthalai completed their arguments.
In the afternoon, senior counsel Nalini Chidambaram mentioned the matter and sought to implead in the matter as a party, stating that no orders should be passed without hearing the students. She was permitted by the Bench to file written submissions.
The petitioner, T. Nikkin of Jolarpettai in Vellore district, sought to quash clauses providing for combining the marks in qualifying examinations and the CET to calculate the aggregate.
The Government filed a counter-affidavit stating that the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations did not preclude qualifying marks taking into consideration qualifying marks for ascertaining the comparative merits of candidates. It said eschewing the marks obtained in qualifying examination would be detrimental to the interests of those who obtained good marks in State and other Board studies. In her submissions, Mrs. Chidambaram said the petition was liable to be dismissed on four major grounds: The legitimate expectation of thousands of students would be belied if the petition were allowed. Courts shall not interfere with policy decisions. The anomaly of one year could not determine the policy for all years to come and the petitioner is guilty of laches (undue delay).
She submitted that there would be utter chaos if the public examination marks were ignored for reckoning the ranks at this stage and added that the rights of students had been crystallised with the holding of the public exam and the CET.
If at all the court held that the merit list must be drawn only on the basis of the CET, it should be implemented only from the next academic year.
As long as a policy was not in violation of any statute or against the MCI Regulations, the weightage given to Plus Two public examinations could not be challenged, she said.
"Outside court domain"
"It is neither within the domain of courts nor the scope of judicial review to embark upon an enquiry as to whether a particular public policy is wise or whether better public policy can be evolved."
The anomaly, which had occurred this year due to the change in the syllabus, could not be the basis for altering the whole evaluation system for determining merit list.
A quota could be fixed for the 2004-2005 batch students so that they did not take away a majority of the seats.
A writ petition could not be filed when admission process to professional courses was about to commence, she said, adding, "rules of a game cannot be altered after the game starts."
Courtesy: The Hindu
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