Efforts by the Government of Tamil Nadu to bypass the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to the undergraduate courses in medicine and dental sciences (MBBS and BDS) suffered a major setback on Friday as the Madras High Court quashed the order issued by the State Government reserving 85 per cent of the total medical seats for students from the State Board.
A group of CBSE students from Tamil Nadu had approached the Madras High Court challenging the order issued by the Tamil Nadu Government on June 22 reserving 85 per cent of the total medical seats for students from the State Board leaving just 15 per cent for the NEET quota. The petitioners submitted that powers to regulate admission to medical courses was vested with the Medical Council of India as per the provisions of the Medical Council Act.
The MCI had stipulated that admissions to the medical courses would be based on marks scored in the NEET and the merit list prepared on basis of such marks and it does not distinguish between students fom State Board and CBSE.
“When the MCI notification stipulates the qualifying examination as NEET and such notification was upheld by the Supreme Court, the State government cannot make the selection by making this impugned reservation, thereby diluting the object of NEET. What the State Government is not able to achieve till this date by way of legislation cannot be achieved by passing the impugned order. When the students of the CBSE are also the domicile of this State, they cannot be given step motherly treatment by making the impugned reservation,” said Justice K Ravichandra Babu in his order.
Educational experts and senior doctors in Tamil Nadu had questioned the propriety in the demands made by some of the major political parties that the State be exempted from the provisions of the NEET. Though they had claimed that the students from the State Board would be at a disadvantage when they compete with the students from the CBSE stream, nearly 40 per cent of the students from Tamil Nadu cleared the NEET and became eligible for admission to MBBS and BDS courses.
The Tamil Nadu legislative assembly had passed two resolutions asking the Union Government to exempt the State from NEET with the claim that it would make the students from the State at a disadvantage while competing against their counterparts from the rest of the country. The resolutions are awaiting the clearance by the President of India.