In a major embarrassment to former Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir, the Supreme Court on Thursday decided to review his controversial verdict by which the Centre’s decision to conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, a common medical/dental undergraduate examination for Government, State-run and private colleges, was set aside by a 2:1 judgement.
The review petitions were filed by the Centre and NGO, Sankalp. It will now be heard by a three-judge bench in open court. Kabir had given the controversial decision on the last day in office.
Deciding a bunch of review petitions filed by the Centre and Sankalp against the July 18 Supreme Court (SC) verdict, the apex bench of Justices Hl Dattu, AR Dave and Vikramajit Sen, decided to take up the matter in open court and issued a notice to the Centre, Medical Council of India (MCI) and Association of Private Medical and Dental Colleges, which had initially challenged the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on the ground that it restricted their right to practice the profession.
Over 7,00,000 students took the NEET this year for the UG courses conducted by CBSE on behalf of the MCI. The Health Ministry had started the process of holding NEET for MBBS, BDS and post-graduate medical courses in 2009. The July 18, 2:1 verdict by a bench headed by Altamas Kabir held that MCI did not have the power under the Act or Rules to issue the NEET circular that violated the constitutional guarantee available to minority institutions to manage and administer their institutions.
For private medical colleges, scrapping of NEET came as a huge relief as under it, Government quota seats in MBBS, BDS and post-graduate courses could be filled only through the common entrance test. Justice Dave dissented with the majority view. He supported the initiative of MCI contending that it was a panacea to solve the woes of students who had to otherwise take part in several entrance examinations. The judge also took potshots at the unscrupulous manner in which private colleges managed their affairs and stressed that NEET was the need of the hour.
The MCI in its review application sided with Justice Dave and hinted at the huge sums collected by private colleges who sold seats at a premium to people with less merit but deep pockets. Pointing to the error apparent in the judgement, an essential condition for a review petition to be entertained, the Centre said: “The majority judgement unsettles the settled legal position that merit as determined in common entrance test is to be the basis for admission for professional education.”
The NEET was held to be unconstitutional under Article 19(1)(g) and for minorities under Article 30. There were reports that the contents of the NEET verdict were leaked a day prior to the judgement date. The matter even went to the present CJI who assured that if there was anything to suggest a “leak,” the matter would be probed.