High Court orders status quo on MBBS/BDS admissions

‘There is need for interim orders as DME had planned to release rank list on Friday’

The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday directed the State Government and Director of Medical Education to maintain status quo until Friday with respect to MBBS/BDS admissions for the academic year 2017-18. Justice K. Kalayanasundaram passed the order on a batch of three writ petitions challenging the validity of a Government Order issued on June 22 apportioning 85% of seats to State Board students and the rest to CBSE students.

Leading the arguments on behalf of the petitioners, Senior Counsel Isaac Mohanlal told the court that there was an imminent necessity to pass interim orders since the DME had planned to release the rank list on Friday and commence the counselling from Monday.

He contended that the G.O. was illegal since there could not be apportioning of seats on the basis of different syllabus and streams of education in which the students had studied.

Similar case

It was also brought to the notice of the judge that the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai too had passed an order on Tuesday directing the State Government to maintain status quo until it took a decision in a similar case filed before it.

The G.O. had stated that the State Legislative Assembly had unanimously passed the Tamil Nadu Admission to MBBS and BDS Courses Bill, 2017 on February 1 in order to protect the policy decision of the government to fill MBBS/BDS seats under the State quota in government medical colleges, as well as government quota seats in self-financing colleges, solely based on marks scored in Plus Two examinations and not the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Since the President was yet to give his assent to the Bill, the government had decided to make admissions for MBBS/BDS courses for the academic year 2017-18 on the basis of NEET score by allotting 85% of seats available in the State government quota in both government and private colleges to those who had studied in State Board syllabus and 15% to CBSE students.

The reason for the decision was because a majority of Plus Two students in the State had studied in State Board syllabus.