Karnataka HC Denies to Extend Deadline for BAMS Admissions

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court bench recently observed that when seats in established institutions have remained unfilled, it is reasonable to infer that the seats in the newly established institutions will not be filled up. With this observation, the HC bench denied to grant relief to 26 Ayurveda institutes who had prayed for an extension of the admission deadline for the undergraduate Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) course.

Dismissing the plea, the bench comprising Chief Justice P.S.Dinesh Kumar and Justice T.G. Shivashankare Gowda observed, "The contention of the petitioners ... is that they were granted Letter of Permission belatedly and on this ground, they have prayed for extension of admission. This contention does not merit consideration because when seats in established Institutions have remained unfilled, it is reasonable to infer that the seats in newly established Institutions will not be filled up."

Filing the plea, the petitioner colleges prayed for a direction upon the authorities to extend the date of admission and enable the petitioner institutes fill up the unfilled seats for the academic year 2023-2024 in respect of BAMS courses.

It was argued by some of the colleges that they were entitled for the relief since they were granted Letters of Permissions (LoPs) belatedly. The colleges submitted that even though they submitted the applications on time, the inspection was conducted late and the LoPs were granted on 23-24.11.2023. 

Thereafter, the institutes included in the counselling on 30.11.2023, which was the last date notified for admissions for the year 2023-2024. As a result of this, several seats remained vacant and when the colleges submitted their representation to NCISM seeking extension of the last date of admission, their representations were not considered. Therefore, the colleges approached the court.

On the other hand, the counsel for NCISM submitted that 17% of the seats remained vacant. It was submitted that since the petitioner institutes are new colleges, they require time to build their brand and attract the students. Therefore, it was unlikely that additional rounds of counselling would benefit them.

It was further submitted on behalf of NCISM that the classes commenced from November 2023 and if fresh admission process is to be conducted the newly admitted students would not be able to cope up with the academic schedule. Further, the counsel for NCISM submitted that there are not many takers for the Ayurvedic course due to which the seats remained unfilled. Therefore, providing extra rounds of counselling or extending the admission deadline would not bring any drastic change in the number of unfilled seats.

While considering the matter, the bench noted, "The fact that there are many seats left unfilled in the Institutions is undisputed."

The court further took note of the fact that no student approached the Court seeking an extension. It was only the institutions who filed the plea. Referring to the submission by the counsel for NCISM, the bench observed, "Ms. Mansi is right in her submission that there are not many takers for the seats in the course offered by the petitioner institutions and hence, the seats have been remained unfilled."

"Another important point is that the classes have commenced from November 2023. At this juncture, if the admission process is extended, it cannot be limited only to petitioner institutions excluding other Ayurvedic Colleges across the State. This would result in discontinuance of the academic schedule and the newly admitted students would not be able to cope up with the course," it further noted.

Therefore, observing that when seats in established institutes remained unfilled, it was reasonable to infer that the seats in the newly established institutes would not be filled up, the bench dismissed the pleas.

The bench noted in its order, "Therefore, in view of the settled position of law and aforementioned discussion, these writ petitions do not merit consideration and accordingly, are dismissed."

To view the order, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/karnataka-bams-admission-deadline-233378.pdf

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