CHENNAI: It's advantage Class 12 students of previous batches in MBBS admissions this year in Tamil Nadu with the Madras high court on Friday ruling that they cannot be barred from taking up seats. If students fail to secure admission to the professional course of their choice in the first attempt, they cannot be declared ineligible for admission in the subsequent year, the court said, dismissing petitions filed by the students who passed out this year.
The students of the 2014-15 batch had moved the court saying taking advantage of low cutoff marks this year, more than 4,670 students from previous years had applied for MBBS counselling this year. Their counsel V Raghavachari submitted that at least 50% of the available 2,200-odd MBBS seats in government colleges would be garnered by candidates from previous years. The court had restrained the state government from issuing admission cards to Class 12 students selected for MBBS course this year.
Following the verdict, the selection committee started issuing admit cards to the students who were allotted seats in the first phase of counselling held from June 19 to June 25. The directorate of medical education said about 1,653 students from the current batch and 544 from the previous years have secured admission.
"As soon as the verdict came we started issuing admit cards to the selected candidates. Things are proceeding smoothly and the second phase of counselling would begin in the third week of next month," said selection committee secretary Dr Usha Sadasivan.
On Friday, a division bench of Justice Sathish K Agnihotri and Justice M Venugopal said the prospectus for admission and provisions of the Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act did not prevent students from previous years from taking part in counseling. The argument that the students of the latest batch would be prejudiced as there were fewer centum scores in relevant subjects in the Class 12 examination this year as compared to the previous year was not relevant, it said. "Securing marks in exam depended on several factors like question papers and evaluation. If more number of students have secured more marks that by itself cannot be a ground to take a view that the selection on merit would suffer," said the bench.
"The year of clearing the qualifying examination is irrelevant," the bench said. The rules only barred only those students who are already pursuing MBBS/BDS courses from participating in the admission counseling, it said.
The judges said the state had enacted the act for admission in professional institutions to regulate the admission process. As the constitutional validity of the act was not challenged, the court could not direct the authorities to conduct a common entrance test for admission, they said. Presently, students are admitted to medical and engineering colleges affiliated to state universities based on their Class 12 scores.
The students of the 2014-15 batch had moved the court saying taking advantage of low cutoff marks this year, more than 4,670 students from previous years had applied for MBBS counselling this year. Their counsel V Raghavachari submitted that at least 50% of the available 2,200-odd MBBS seats in government colleges would be garnered by candidates from previous years. The court had restrained the state government from issuing admission cards to Class 12 students selected for MBBS course this year.
Following the verdict, the selection committee started issuing admit cards to the students who were allotted seats in the first phase of counselling held from June 19 to June 25. The directorate of medical education said about 1,653 students from the current batch and 544 from the previous years have secured admission.
"As soon as the verdict came we started issuing admit cards to the selected candidates. Things are proceeding smoothly and the second phase of counselling would begin in the third week of next month," said selection committee secretary Dr Usha Sadasivan.
On Friday, a division bench of Justice Sathish K Agnihotri and Justice M Venugopal said the prospectus for admission and provisions of the Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act did not prevent students from previous years from taking part in counseling. The argument that the students of the latest batch would be prejudiced as there were fewer centum scores in relevant subjects in the Class 12 examination this year as compared to the previous year was not relevant, it said. "Securing marks in exam depended on several factors like question papers and evaluation. If more number of students have secured more marks that by itself cannot be a ground to take a view that the selection on merit would suffer," said the bench.
"The year of clearing the qualifying examination is irrelevant," the bench said. The rules only barred only those students who are already pursuing MBBS/BDS courses from participating in the admission counseling, it said.
The judges said the state had enacted the act for admission in professional institutions to regulate the admission process. As the constitutional validity of the act was not challenged, the court could not direct the authorities to conduct a common entrance test for admission, they said. Presently, students are admitted to medical and engineering colleges affiliated to state universities based on their Class 12 scores.
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