The Kerala High Court on Friday imposed a conditional stay on the government order asking the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations to make admission to all seats, including management and NRI seats, in all self-financing medical and dental colleges in the State.
A Bench headed by Justice K. Surendra Mohan issued the injunction on a batch of writ petitions filed by the Kerala Christian Professional College Managements’ Federation, Muslim Educational Society (MES), and other self-financing medical and dental colleges challenging the government order.
The court imposed the condition that the managements should make the admissions from the rank list of the National Eligibility-Cum- Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education for admission to the MBBS/BDS courses. The court made it clear that the admission should be made inter se on the basis of merit from among the applications received by each college.
Court’s instructions
The court directed the management of each college to submit the prospectus for the approval of the Admission Supervisory and Fee Regulatory Commission. The Commission should complete the approval process within three days from the submission of the prospectus. Details of the prospects and applications should be uploaded on the websites of the respective colleges. Counsel for the managements argued that admission could not be made to management seats on the basis of the list of candidates from the NEET rank list prepared by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations.
They submitted that the government decision was nothing but reintroduction of Section 3 of the Kerala Professional Colleges or Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence in Professional Education) Act, which had been struck down as unconstitutional by a Division Bench of the High Court. Section 3 had provided that admissions to all seats in professional colleges other than NRI seats be made through centralised counselling based on State Common Entrance Test.
The managements said the government had reportedly taken the decision on the basis of a Central government directive. They contended that in the letter, the Centre had only stated that it was “desirable” to have a centralised allotment by the State government.
The federation had pointed out that seats in colleges under the federation were being filled up as per an agreement between the managements and the State government. The three-year agreement from 2015 enabled 50 per cent of seats to be filled by the State and the rest by managements.
