Neet ordinance: Supreme Court will hear petitions July 7

Jul 05, 2016 - J. Venkatesan | 

New Delhi

 The Supreme Court on Thursday will hear petitions challenging the NEET ordinance granting exemption to states to admit students in government medical colleges through their own common entrance tests for the academic year 2016-2017.

A vacation Bench had refused to stay the operation of the ordinance stating that the stay would not be in the interests of the students who were to take the NEET-2 exam on July 24.

On Monday, senior counsel Mr Amarendra Saran, appearing for main petitioner Dr Anand Rai, whistleblower and rights activist who had exposed the Vyapam medical scam in Madhya Pradesh, submitted before a Bench of Chief justice T.S. Thakur and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that the issue was of importance and should be heard expeditiously.

The CJI said since a Bench headed by Justice Anil R. Dave was dealing with the matter, the petitions would be listed for hearing on July 7.

The states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had filed caveats to ensure that no ex parte order was passed by the court, and they will also be heard on that day.

Dr Rai said by way of this Ordinance, the states have been enabled to conduct their own entrance exams for state government seats (government medical colleges or private medical colleges) for the academic year 2016-17, essentially implying exemption from NEET.

He pointed out that the Government of India itself had accepted in the apex court the need for a unified uniform examination for undergraduate and post-graduate levels and was of the opinion that the situation in the present scenario was that NEET ought to be conducted with urgency.

The CBSE, which is conducting NEET, had even provided a schedule to SC which is recorded in the orders of the court dated April 27, April 28 and May 9.

Hence the present ordinance was a completely contradictory stand by the Centre within a span of four weeks. This was also done at a belated stage as the examination itself was to be scheduled within the next eight weeks as per the schedule given by the CBSE, and the discriminating ordinance further created confusion amongst students, he said.

He said the ordinance was exercised with the sole intention of upsetting the orders of the court and showed ill intent. The U-turn by the Centre showed mala fides and ill intent towards the process of admission of students, who would suffer the most. The petitioner pointed out that the ordinance was also silent on merit.

The states, in protection of such rights, are liable to make sure competent and meritorious candidates are admitted into medical courses, but this will only be possible by putting a full-stop to the present system of admitting students. And if the Union did take such a stand, it would leave little room for doubt of the mala fide intent.

The petitioner said that a government decision taken for purely political considerations, without any material, could be quashed and prayed for a direction to quash the May 24 ordinance and an interim stay of its operation.