HC quashes 85% MBBS quota for TN state board students

CHENNAI: Admission process for MBBS/BDS courses this year will get further delayed in Tamil Nadu, as Madras HC on Monday refused to endorse the state government’s policy of reserving 85% of available medical seats for students from state board.

A division bench dismissed an appeal moved by the state against a single judge order quashing the order which sought to apportion medical seats between students from state board students and CBSE/other boards at 85:15% respectively. The bench rejected the appeal saying the it lacked merits.

Minutes after the verdict, director of medical education Dr A Edwin Joe said the state would continue to put the admission process on hold, as the state goverment was considering further legal course, including an appeal in the Supreme Court. The state board, which had slated to start counselling by July 16, is yet to release even the merit list.

Health minister C Vijay Baskar and health secretary J Radhakrishnan are camping in New Delhi holding meetings with senior ministers, including union health minister J P Nadda, and the prime minister’s office seeking exemption from NEET. Deputy speaker of Lok Sabha M Thambidurai said the state was exploring all options to retain its own admission policy. On July 14, a single judge of the court quashed the government order passed by the state providing reservation calling it a “stepmotherly and discriminatory” move against CBSE students.

Assailing the order, the Tamil Nadu government filed an appeal contending that the government was duty bound to make provisions, so as to protect the interests of vast majority of students from state board who did not have access to CBSE schools.

The students cannot be held responsible for sudden change in the pattern of admission which is mainly based on syllabus, methodology and examination entirely different from each other, the government said. Counsel for CBSE students argued that the reservation had been brought in only to serve the vested interest of the urban private state board institutions.

While passing orders on the appeals on Monday , the bench said, “The objective sought to be achieved by this policy decision has no connection with the classification attempted. The spelt out objective is to ensure fair and equal opportunities to all the students, who have pursued the eligibility examination, namely, +2 course, through various boards, in the matter of admission to UG medical courses against the available state quota seats. That objective stands accomplished already when all the students, drawn from all the boards have appeared for the NEET.

“Dismissing the appeals for lack of merit, the bench said, “we only hope and trust that the process of the admission for the academic year 2017-18 will not be delayed any further in as much as the last date set for such admissions expires by August 31. Hence, the state government shall take all necessary steps expeditiously from now on to complete the process.”

News Source TNN