Can Private Students clearing 10+2 appear for NEET Counselling? Supreme Court asks NMC

Asking NMC, the apex medical regulator to clarify if such students can appear for MBBS counselling or not in an affidavit, the top court bench comprising of Justices LN Rao and AS Oka has listed the matter for further hearing on February 8, 2022.

The plea was filed through Advocate on Record Shashi Kiran.

Senior Advocate, Mr. Gangele, the counsel for the petitioner students pointed out that there was no direction to upload separate marksheet of class XI in several states including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Maharashtra, and Centre.

He also referred to the guidelines issued by Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh.

Opposing these submissions, the counsel for NMC referred to the NEET UG counseling brochure of Uttarakhand and said, "NEET Bulletin's requirement is 10+ 2 with 2 years continuous study. Requirement of 2 years continuous study with practicals is one of the mandatory requirements my lords."

Responding to this, the counsel for NMC submitted that when the apex medical regulator had written to the concerned authorities asking if students who had not studied continuously for two years could be allowed, the authorities had clarified that there had to be continuous study.

At this outset, the bench referred to the fact that all the states except for Madhya Pradesh and Punjab had given go ahead to such students to appear for the test, and expressed its inclination to give NMC some time for taking instructions in this matter.

"We have written to the Governments of the states. This problem started last year only," the counsel for NMC was quoted saying by Live Law.

He also referred to the NEET UG 2021 bulletin which clearly mentions, "Candidates who have passed 10+2 from Open School or as private candidates shall not be eligible to appear for the 'National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test'" and candidature of such students would be subject to the final decision of the Delhi High Court in the matter of Anshul Agrawal v Union of India and Others.

Responding to this, the bench observed, "You are permitting them to appear & you can't say that there is wrong interpretation of the judgement.We can't go behind this & we are only asking you to get instructions from the concerned authorities as to whether all these students are being permitted to appear in counseling. So that we'll pass interim orders. Counseling is going on."

Thus, directing NMC to file its counter, the bench adjourned the matter for Tuesday.