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| Friday, Jul 07, 2006
MBBS/BDS admission: court wants the present system to continue
Dismisses petitions seeking admission based only on CET marks
- Bench says it has not been demonstrated that present policy prejudicially affected student community at large
- Policy caused hardship to some, but that alone cannot be ground to hold it is in violation of right to equality
Chennai: The Madras High Court has declined to "upset" the existing
practice of taking into account marks obtained in Plus Two examination
as well as those scored in the common entrance test, for MBBS/BDS
admission.
Dismissing petitions seeking admission based only on the CET marks, the First Bench, comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice D. Murugesan, said the policy framed by the State Government was in operation for more than two decades. It had not been demonstrated that it prejudicially affected the student community at large. It would be unreasonable to upset the practice.
"It may be true that in the given case the policy caused hardship to some of the students, but that by itself cannot be a ground to hold that it is in violation of the right to equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution," the Judges said.
New syllabus
About the petitioners' contention that the new Plus Two syllabus for academic year 2005-06 was tougher than the earlier one, the Bench said: "We are of the opinion that merely because the new syllabus introduced this year is supposed to be tough, it cannot be a ground to depart from the policy."
In response to a court direction, Advocate-General R. Viduthalai furnished two rank lists -- one based on the Plus Two as well as the CET marks, and the other on the basis of the CET alone.
The memo revealed that at least 142 students, who had taken only the CET and scored 86.70 marks, would have found a place in the top 1,500 ranks and become eligible for MBBS/BDS seat allotment.
MCI regulations
While the petitioners claimed it perpetuated "glaring discrimination," the Government said the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations did not preclude qualifying marks from being considered for ascertaining comparative merit of candidates.
"The State Government is neither prevented nor prohibited from prescribing the selection pattern inclusive of comparative weightage of marks obtained in these examinations."
Senior advocate Nalini Chidambaram filed an implead petition stating that the legitimate expectation of thousands of students would be belied if the petitions were allowed.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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