Medical education: Madras HC orders status quo on Tamil Nadu MBBS, BDS admissions

Status quo to be maintained till adjudication of a plea against a state government order reserving 85% of the seats for state board students and only 15% for CBSE and other boards

Chennai The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered status quo on the admission process of MBBS and BDS courses in Tamil Nadu till the adjudication of a plea against a state government order reserving 85% of the seats for state board students and only 15% for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and other boards. The admissions are being done on the basis of scores secured by students in National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test (NEET) for entrance to medical colleges for MBBS and BDS courses.

Madras High Court (pictured) has ordered status quo on MBBS, BDS admissions till the adjudication of a plea against a state government order reserving 85% of the seats for state board students and only 15% for the Central Board of Secondary Education and other boards.(PTI)

Justice K Ravichandra Baabu gave the directive while reserving orders after day-long arguments on a petition by Darnish Kumar, a student represented by his parents, and two others challenging the June 22 state government order.

Defending the order, advocate general R Muthukumaraswamy said the policy of the state government was not in favour NEET, conducted by the CBSE.

Two bills seeking exemption for the state from the NEET for both undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses had been passed by the assembly and Presidential assent for the same was awaited.

He also submitted that out of 4.30 lakh students under the state board as many as 84,000 had appeared for NEET whereas as out of 4,000 students under the CBSE, a total of 2,000 had taken the entrance test.

More than 50% of the questions in NEET were based on the CBSE syllabus. There was inequality in the all-India exam.

Under the 85-15% quota, around 2,000 state board students and 520 CBSE students would get chance for medical seats, he said.

Criticising the government order the petitioners submitted that the Supreme Court (SC) had clearly stated that when admission was based on the entrance examination NEET, it should make no difference whether the qualifying examination was conducted by the state board or CBSE because no discrimination can be done between the schools affiliated to both the boards.

There could be no distribution of seats between state and other board students and the petitioners who had qualified in the Class 12 board examinations from schools within the state were entitled to be considered against all available seats in MBBS and BDS courses. The result of NEET alone could be considered, they argued.

After conclusion of the arguments, the judge reserved orders on the petitions and ordered status quo till the final order.

As per the present situation, the merit list for medical courses will be published on July 14 and the counselling will start on July 17.

A similar petition against the G.O was filed in the Supreme Court which, however, on July 7 declined to entertain it and directed the petitioner to approach the Madras High Court. PTI Cor VS GSN