Apex Court: Madras HC to decide
The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a plea against a Tamil Nadu government order. The order had reserved 85 per cent of seats in MBBS and BDS courses for the state board students. Only 15 per cent were reserved for those of other boards, including the CBSE.
WHAT SC SAID
Bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud asked the petitioner to approach the Madras High Court. Madras HC is already hearing pleas against the state government order. R Nakkiran is father of a medical aspirant and is being represented by senior advocate Nalini Chidambaram. Apex Court has asked petitioner to withdraw the plea and either file a fresh one or intervene in the pending matter before the Madras High Court.
Earlier, the High Court had issued notices to the Health and Family Welfare Department’s secretary, Medical Education’s additional director, the Selection Committee’s secretary and the Medical Council of India on a separate plea challenging the government order.
WHAT PETITIONERS SAID
The petitioners had submitted that the apex court has clearly stated an admission is based on entrance examination NEET. Then it should make no difference whether the qualifying examination is conducted by the state board or CBSE. No discrimination can be made between the schools affiliated to both the boards. They had further stated that once a common merit list is prepared for the purpose of grant of admission to MBBS and BDS courses based on NEET results. Thus the only permissible reservation was in favour of students who have studied in schools located within Tamil Nadu. Therefore, it is impermissible for distribution of seats on the basis of the school board. Thus, such segregation of seats would amount to discrimination among students.
