No limit on BAMS attempts: HC

Fri, Jan 02, 2015

The Karnataka High Court has reiterated that students who have joined the Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) before 2012, and studying in various government and private colleges under the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), will have unlimited attempts to clear their subjects.

Earlier in November, the HC had ruled in favour of six first year BAMS students who were not permitted a fifth attempt to write their exams.

In this instance, the students had approached the HC after RGUHS had not allowed the benefits of a 2012-13 regulation -- that did not specify any limit on the number of attempts -- to 164 students who had joined the course between 2007 and 2011.

The Indian Medicine Central Council (Minimum Standards of Education in Indian Medicine), (Amendment) Regulations, 2012 published on April 25, 2012 and amended on May 22, 2013 did not specify any limit on the number of attempts that the medical students could have to clear their subjects.

But RGUHS was insisting that the students who had joined the course before the publication of these regulations follow a 2006 notification by the secretary to ministry of health and family welfare that put a cap on the number of attempts.

The students challenged the dual system and claimed that, "under the 2012 and 2013 notifications there is no restriction with regard to the number of attempts. Despite the same, the restriction on the number of attempts in examinations is being imposed on these students because they were admitted to the course earlier."

Referring to a similar case in the Aurangabad Bench of the High Court of Bombay, the HC bench of Justice AS Bopanna ruled that the notification which imposed maximum number of attempts cannot co-exist with new regulations which do not impose such restrictions.

The Karnataka HC noted that even as of today, the 2012 regulation has not been amended to impose restrictions.

Therefore, the students "cannot be insisted upon to limit their number of appearances when such limitation is not yet brought into force in the regulations 2012. Therefore, until amendment is made to the regulations 2012 to apply a uniform procedure to all students who have been admitted either prior to regulations 2012 or thereafter, the benefit as exists in the regulations 2012 would have to be provided to the petitioners and similarly placed students without limiting their number of attempts."