HC Denies Relief to BHMS Students Who Failed to Clear NEET

Mumbai:The Bombay High Court bench recently refused to grant ad-interim relief to some of the Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery (BHMS) students, who got admitted to the course without qualifying the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and were seeking permission from the court to be allowed to appear in the examination.

While considering their plea, which was filed by the Association of Management of Homoeopathic Colleges (AHMC) of Maharashtra, the HC bench of Justices G.S. Patel and Neela Gokhale observed, "We do not see how the Petitioner has any locus or any legally or constitutionally enforceable right to begin with. Second, the matter is not without a history. The students for whom the relief is sought have not met the threshold qualifying criteria in the NEET. Individual students came to Court and reliefs were refused."

The plea before the High Court was filed by the Association of Management of Homeopathic Medical Colleges in Maharashtra. The Association sought permission from the court for some students enrolled in various colleges of the association to appear in the 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year and 4th year of the Homeopathic examinations.

Such a plea was filed when a proposal dated 30th May 2023 is still pending consideration by the Ayush Ministry, noted the Court. While considering the matter, the bench observed that the concerned students for whom the relief was sought could not meet the threshold criteria in the NEET examination. Consequently, they approached the Court, but did not get any relief.

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Ultimately the matter reached the Supreme Court and the Apex Court on May 16, 2023, ordered that the Central Government would take the final decision in this regard. Further, the top court had clarified that if the Centre relaxed the percentile requirement, then the concerned students would be entitled to continue with the course provided the marks obtained by them came within the percentile range fixed by the authorities.

"For this purpose, the petitioners and the respective colleges are granted liberty to make substantive representations before the 4 appropriate authority of the Union of India and if such representations are made within two weeks from today, then decision on the same shall be taken expeditiously," the top court bench had ordered.

The association submitted before the HC bench that because of the liberty granted to the colleges to make a representation, the colleges have the locus to maintain the plea.

However, disagreeing with this, the bench observed, "That liberty by the Supreme Court was only to make a representation. It does not mean that the Supreme Court decided the question of the Petitioner Association’s locus under Article 226 of the Constitution of India."

It was further argued that since the concerned students appeared for one examination, they should be permitted to appear for the rest. Addressing this argument, the HC bench observed, "There is no substance to this. In fact, there is no end to this. Before long, on the strength of these orders (based on misplaced sympathy and nothing else, and wrongly so based in our view), the student will then claim to be entitled to graduate, and then to be entitled to practice homeopathy and to be enrolled as homeopathic practitioners. All this will entirely elide the fact that they have not met the NEET threshold passing criteria; and, more importantly, that they could not have been granted admission in the first place by the colleges that are part of the Petitioner - Association."

With this observation, the Court denied any ad-interim relief and directed the Ayush Ministry to consider the representation of the students at the earliest. The court observed, "We have no hesitation in refusing ad-interim relief. The Aayush Ministry is requested to take up the representation at its earliest convenience but we are setting no deadline for this, because we cannot. We are expressing no opinion on the merits of the representation."

To view the order, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/bombay-hc-order-213648.pdf

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