Three days after the Tamil Nadu government passed a government order reserving 85% seats of UG medical seats available in the State quota to non CBSE students, an aspiring medical student from Thanjavur had approached the Madras High Court assailing the move.
C. Darnish Kumar, who is also a CBSE student, wanted the court to pass an interim order staying the counselling for admission to UG medical seats based on NEET scheduled on July 7, pending disposal of his petition.
However, Justice Puspha Sathyanarayana before whom the plea came up for hearing refused to pass any interim order without granting reasonable time for the State to file its response. The judge then posted the plea to July 5 for the State and the Medical Council of India to file their counter affidavit.
According to the petitioner, powers to regulate admission to medical courses lay exclusively with the Medical Council of India (MCI) as per the provisions of the Indian Medical Council Act. The MCI has stipulated that admissions to medical courses shall be based on the marks obtained in NEET and merit list prepared on basis of such marks and it does not distinguish between students from CBSE and State Board.
"While the fact being so, the Tamil Nadu government cannot make any segregation or classification into categories that are not recognised by the MCI. Similarly the State cannot prepare a separate merit list and provide reservation based on stream/board of education, which is a clear discrimination," the petitioner said.
He wanted the court to call for the records of the government order dated June 22, and quash the same.
