Karnataka High Court upholds law making admission based on NEET mandatory even for BHMS course

The HC says private homeopathic medical colleges cannot have an unfettered right to admit students regardless of merit; the objective of prescription of NEET is to ensure that qualified students take admission in BHMS course, which is in the interest of the patients whom they treat

March 04, 2023 09:32 pm | Updated 09:32 pm IST - Bengaluru

A view of High Court of Karnataka.

A view of High Court of Karnataka.

Merely because number of seats in Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery course are more and candidates a few, the requirement of merit-based admission on National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) ranking cannot be dispensed with, and private educational institutions cannot have an unfettered right to admit students regardless of their merit, said the High Court of Karnataka.

The Court made these observations while also upholding constitutional validity of several provisions of the National Commission for Homeopathy (NCH) Act, 2020, which prescribe NEET-based admission for BHMS courses. Besides, the Court also said that the NCH (Homeopathy Degree Course – BHMS) Regulations, 2022, and the NCH (Minimum Standards of Requirement for Homeopathy Colleges and Attached Hospitals) Regulations, 2022, are also legally valid.

The objective of prescription of NEET is to ensure that qualified students take admission in BHMS course, which is in the interest of the patients whom they treat, the Court said..

Only prospectively

However, the Court said that the guidelines issued under the NCW Act by the Central government in October, 2022, for admission to BHMS course and Regulations notified by the NCH in December, 2022, do not apply to the process of admission to BHMS course that commenced in July, 2022, while clarifying that the guidelines and the Regulations would operate prospectively.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Vijaykumar A. Patil passed the order while disposing of a petition filed by the Karnataka State Private Homeopathic Medical College Managements’ Association, and four private homeopathic colleges. The petitioners had questioned several provisions of the NCW Act, including the provision that makes admission through NEET mandatory for BHMS courses.

It was contended on behalf of the petitioners and the colleges that the institutions imparting education in homeopathy courses are not of all India character and there is no excess demand over availability, giving scope for malpractices and therefore, requiring assessment of inter-se-merit for grant of admission to competing aspirants for admission through NEET, as prescribed in Section 4 of the Act does not arise.

The petitioners had also argued that equating and comparing the study of homeopathy with allopathic medicine and dentistry and applying rigours of provision for grant of admission and standards of education provided for such courses is manifestly arbitrary.

While rejecting petitioners’ contentions, the Bench said that the right of the petitioners to admit students in educational institutions has merely been regulated and the same does not amount to violation of their rights guaranteed either under the Constitution or interpreted in judgements of the apex court.

Meanwhile, the Bench quashed the State Government’s December 13, 2002, notification applying the regulations for the admissions, which had commenced way back in July, 2022, as the NCH’s regulations would be applicable prospectively, The Bench also permitted the petitioners to admit students for the remaining vacant seats on the basis of academic eligibility only for the academic session of 2022-23, which commended prior to notification of the regulations.

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