The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed the common entrance test — NEET, introduced by the Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India for admission into undergraduate and post-graduate medical and dental courses in Government, private and unaided colleges.
The 2:1 verdict given by a majority bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Vikramajit Sen came as a huge blow to lakhs of students who had appeared in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and dashed their hopes of getting admission into a college of their choice.
With this decision, the Court has re-introduced the old system permitting private medical/dental colleges or their associations to hold separate admission tests to fill seats. The court, however, clarified that admissions already given on basis of NEET will remain valid.
CJI, who wrote the majority decision, held the view that neither MCI nor DCI had the power or authority under the Act governing them to conduct tests for private colleges in the name of regulating standards of medical/dental education. This violated the right of the private, unaided and minority institutions to freely administer, which was guaranteed to them under Articles 19(1)(g), 25, 26, 29(1) and 30 of the Constitution.
The bench also cited practical problems to justify quashing of the MCI and DCI notifications. Referring to the argument of the Centre that the decision benefited poor students as they would not be required to sit for multiple exams which entailed payment of fees and cost of traveling, the majority decision questioned as to which poor student would benefit from such a test.
“It cannot be disputed that children in the metropolitan areas enjoy greater privileges than their counterparts in most of the rural areas as far as education is concerned, and the decision of the Central Government to support a single entrance examination would perpetuate such a divide in the name of giving credit to merit,” the Chief Justice wrote, stating that such a policy cannot ensure a level playing field.
However, the dissenting judge Justice AR Dave disagreed with the above conclusions.
Though in minority, he said: “In my opinion, unscrupulous and money-minded businessmen operating in the field of education would be constrained to stop their corrupt practices and it (NEET) would help not only deserving students but also the nation in bringing down the level of corruption.”
This was the argument put forth by the MCI counsel in court who pointed out that several medical colleges who were more into a profiteering business would be most hit by NEET as they collected huge amount by way of donation or capitation fees and gave admission to undeserving or weak students.
The majority countered this view by suggesting that no material was on record to suggest that Christian Medical College at Vellore and ludhiana, St Johns College, Bangalore or linguistic minority institutions and other privately-run institutions, both aided and unaided indulged in any malpractice in matters of admission.
In the ultimate analysis, NEET was held to be ultra vires the Constitutional provisions as the Court held: “They have the effect of denuding the States, State-run universities and all medical colleges and institutions, including those enjoying the protection of the above provisions, from admitting students to their MBBS, BDS and post-graduate courses, according to their own procedures, beliefs and dispensations, which have been found by this Court in the TMA Pai case to be an integral facet of right to administer.”