The Supreme Court on Thursday criticised the Government’s Ordinance on the National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test (NEET) for giving States the option to conduct their own exams this year, but it refused to stay the Ordinance keeping in mind the interest of lakhs of students who had taken these tests.
The Ordinance on NEET enacted on May 24, 2016 came almost 15 days after the Supreme Court on May 9 directed a single test for all-India medical/dental admissions into private and Government colleges beginning this year.
Finding the Ordinance to be “patently bad” as it nullified the apex court’s order with regard to State medical colleges, the Bench of Justices AR Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and Adarsh K Goel observed, “After NEET was made operative by us, all other examinations (by State or private colleges) became illegal and from that day no other examination could be held.”
But the Bench realised that any attempt to stay the Ordinance would render the future of lakhs of students in jeopardy as over 17 States had conducted their test while some had even closed the admission process for this year.
“The action of the Government (to exempt States) was not warranted as the purpose of our order was to bring uniformity in standards of medical admissions across the country… Though prima facie we find that the validity of the Ordinance is open to doubt but the fact that 50 per cent of States have already held the exams, we do not wish to grant any interim relief at this stage,” the Bench held.
Two petitions — one by Sankalp Charitable Trust and another by a public spirited person Anand Rai — challenged the Ordinance to be illegal and violative of court’s direction. Senior advocate Amarendra Saran appearing for Sankalp submitted that what the Ordinance seeks to achieve is to overrule a judicial order by deferring its implementation by a year. Allowing this will bolster States to similarly issue Ordinances to set at naught judicial decisions. For the other petitioner, senior advocate Vivek Tankha said that even State entrance tests cannot be trusted following the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh.
However, the Centre represented by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi emphasised that the exemption to States was in the interest of lakhs of students who appeared in the various common entrance tests. It was not meant to be an affront to the court, he submitted. Moreover, he added, the exemption is only for this year.
The court said that the exemption was bound to create difficulties for students who appeared only for NEET as States will fill seats from their own exam. “This Ordinance is prima facie not proper… but any decision by us could result in chaos. Our difficulty is we have to see the interest of students as well,” the Bench observed.