Court relief for 17 National Board students

The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the National Board of Examination to grant provisional admission to 17 candidates for its Diploma in National Board (DNB) course.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the National Board of Examination to grant provisional admission to 17 candidates for its Diploma in National Board (DNB) course.

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Some candidates had appeared for the qualifying examination for the course in 2008 and some in 2009 but were not considered for this year's admission process because of the changed criteria in the new rules starting from this academic year.

They had moved the high court challenging the National Board's decision.

Their counsel Pooja Thorat said the rules could be implemented only prospectively and therefore were not applicable to students who have cleared the qualifying examination and were undergoing necessary experience in accordance with old rules.

On July 16, the high court had ratified the new rules saying there was nothing wrong with those. But the court had accepted Thorat's contention, and directed the National Board to consider candidates who have cleared qualifying exam under old rules.

A week later, the court clarified and directed the National Board to earmark some seats for students who had passed qualifying examination between June 2008 and December 2009.

However, the National Board said it couldn't provide such quota as suggested by the high court. But considering the number of seats for DNB course were lying vacant in the state, the division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed the national board to admit the 17 petitioners in the disciplines in which they have gained experience.

Till last year, the candidates seeking admission for the DNB courses were required to qualify theoretical entrance test after which they were

granted admissions in hospitals on the basis of their experience.

In May, the state government decided to drop the work experience from consideration of merit, which was to be based solely on the marks secured in theoretical examinations.

The decision had put many candidates' future in a jeopardy as they had undergone part of the entrance test - theoretical paper and were busy acquiring work experience.