NEET Qualified Candidates Move SC Challenging AYUSH Dept's Non-Regularization of Provisional Admission in Unani College

New Delhi: Seeking regularization of the provisional admission granted to them by a Unani College in the BUMS Course, eight NEET-qualified students have approached the Supreme Court and filed a plea in this regard.

Initially, these students had approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking admission from the Ayush Department (Bhopal) for their admission into the Bachelor of Unani Medicine & Surgery (BUMS) course for the academic year 2022-2023.

They submitted that after appearing in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), 2022, they cleared the exam. However, as per the students, even after securing their names in the merit list, the authorities did not call them for registration and guidance.

Approaching the Court, these petitioner students alleged that the AYUSH department issued admission letters to them only on the last date of admission. Therefore, they were forced to approach Unani College for granting provisional admission. Following this, the college sent them provisional admission letters. However, as per the students the AYUSH Department has not regularized or confirmed their admissions.

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On the other hand, the authorities submitted that before the commencement of the first counselling, the petitioners did not register themselves on the online portal. Therefore, the subsequent process could not be started. Referring to this, the authorities argued that it was a case of backdoor admission as the Unani College cannot grant final admission to the petitioners. In this regard, the authorities also pointed out that the relevant academic session has already ended.

While considering the matter, the MP High Court perused all the records and noted that the petitioners had not complied with the procedure envisaged in the National Commission of Indian System of Medicine (Minimum Standard for Under Graduate Unani Education) Regulations, 2020 for admission to Ayurvedic, Homeopathy and Unani education courses in Madhya Pradesh.

"The petitioners were not a part of the counselling process. They took admission illegally in the respondent no.3/college which had no right to grant direct admission to the students without following due procedure. This cannot be termed as anything but illegal," the HC bench had observed.

Further expressing concerns over the backdoor admissions in medical colleges, the HC bench had noted, "It is high time that such backdoor admissions in educational institutions including medical colleges must be stopped. Lakhs of students across the country work very hard to get admission in educational institutions on the basis of their merit. To permit backdoor admissions in any educational institution would be a grave injustice to those students who, despite having higher qualifications, are denied admission due to seats being taken up and blocked by such backdoor admits."