Supreme Court orders NEET PG Admissions into 70 percent seats in CMC Vellore via State list of Christian Minority Students

The remaining 30 per cent of the seats shall be filled up by the management by the same procedure that was followed in the last academic session i.e. 2020-2021.

However, clarifying that this order would be applicable only for this academic year, the Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B. R. Gavai noted, "We make it clear that this order is restricted only for the purpose of admission for the year 2021-2022 and shall not be treated as a precedent."

Such observations came from the bench while it was considering an interlocutory application filed in connection of a petition filed by the CMC Vellore.

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In the original plea, the institute had sought directions from the Apex Court to quash the Selection Committee's letter where the Tamil Nadu Government sought to impose the state government's policy of 50 per cent reservation of seats i.e. the state quota seats in its favour in the UG and PG degree courses, adds Live Law.

During the previous hearing of the case on January 19, 2022, the top court had directed, "After examining the submissions made on both sides, we are of the considered view that for the Academic Year 2021-2022, students belonging to Christian minority shall be allotted to all PG seats in the petitioner-college by the 2nd Respondent from the NEET merit list."

The counsel for the institute, Mr. Shyam Diwan referred to the revised list of the TN Government of allotting seats to only the students from the State.

Referring to the top court's judgment, the counsel for CMC argued that the list violated the top court order, as per which it was mandatory for the seats to be allotted by the State from the NEET All India merit list.

Now please take up for a moment my additional affidavit and finally…the List which has now been sent to us is Annexure 1. This is the list which was furnished to us on 19th Jan 2022. This has students from all across the country. Once your lordships' order became available to us it was quite obvious that Christian students from this list would be drawn. Unfortunately, they only drew students from the State of Tamil Nadu," he submitted.

His main objections for the revised list included the fact that it violated the NEET regulations of allotting seats on the basis of merit, it violated the top court order of January 19, and it reduced the status of CMC from a national institute to a provincial institute.

"So essentially the All India Merit, which, as we understood, was the direction that you have to go by NEET merit list on an all Indian basis has been completely given a go by and you now only have students from the State of Tamil Nadu who are being counselled so far as CMC is concerned. So my first point is that it is contrary to NEET which has to be AIl India merit. This is contrary to lordships' direction. Our institution is a national institution," argued the counsel for the college.

He also referred to the revised list and submitted, "This is the revised list of tentative Christian minority candidates, which has just been uploaded. These students from Sl. No. 1 to 596, which came over the weekend, are all from Tamil Nadu. Everyone they have counselled for the PG group are 100% from Tamil Nadu."

Similar arguments were made by some of the students of the institute and Senior Advocate, Ms. Anitha Shenoy appearing for the students was quoted saying by Live Law, "Nativity was never a part of the CMC prospectus which was issued on 06.01.2021. It is not an eligibility requirement even for the management quota. Even if one looks at the Govt. prospectus, it is one of the criteria…So, nativity which was never a part of the process, after the admission process has begun is being introduced now for the first time and as a result meritorious students are suffering. There was a list on 19.01.2021, we were there, now with respect to the new list I am out."

Another issue which the counsel for the students referred to was the benefits given to the in-service candidates. She submitted, "Second grievance, they have introduced a criteria, which is service incentive criteria for those who have served in the TN Govt. This service incentive was never applicable to management quota. These were given only qua Govt. seats in Govt. colleges and Govt. seats in management colleges. Nativity and service incentive which was never a part has been introduced now. I am aggrieved by these two."

Meanwhile, the counsel for the Tamil Nadu Government, AAG Mr Amit Anand Tiwari submitted that from this academic year i.e. 2021-2022, admissions to the PG courses are being undertaken on the basis of religious minority as per the NEET score on the basis of 50:50 seat sharing.

Based on this, the State prepares the merit list for the 50% of seats and management quota applications are invited on an All India basis and the students get admitted on the basis of their merit and no benefits are provided to the students for their minority status or any other reservation.

Taking note of all these submissions, the bench opined that the fact that the Christian students from outside of Tamil Nadu would not get admission in the state s they would not be treated as Christians should have been highlighted when the court had given the order in January 19.

Apologizing, the Government pleader referred to Regulation 5 of the Postgraduate Regulations, 2017 and argued that two merit lists are required to be prepared including the State merit list and the All India merit list.

While the State quota seats are filled on the basis of the State merit list, the DGHS conducts the counseling for 15% All India Quota and for the deemed universities on the basis of the All India merit list.

When the bench questioned about the procedure followed in CMC in the previous years, the Government pleader referred to the affidavit of the institute and submitted that the sponsoring Dioceses recommend names of the candidates. Following this, the list is forwarded to the Selection committee, which verifies and recommends the names for admission. After this, the list gets forwarded to the State for approval.

He also mentioned that until last year, the admission to the institute was limited to the Protestant Christians. Thus, opposing the plea of CMC in seeking to admit students on the basis of All India merit list, the Government pleader submitted that previously, the CMC management had allotted as per the All India list and had excluded the Non-Protestant Christians.

"They restricted admission to only protestant christian minority. It was never an All India kind of merit list. Even non-protestant Christian students were not given admission by them…" he argued.

Regarding the issue of In-service candidates, the counsel for the State referred to the regulations that enabled the state for allotting incentive marks for preparing the merit list.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the students outside the state referred to the fact that even after living in Tamil Nadu for five years, those students do not get the nativity benefit and such benefit has not been extended to the self financed colleges.

When the counsel for the institute suggested to come up with the 50:50 seat sharing arrangement, including 50% seat allotment from the revised State list and 50% from the list published on January 19, so that the people from All India list also gets to be admitted.

At this outset, the bench observed, "The interim arrangement for the present academic year is permitting the institution to make admissions to 30% of the seats by following the procedure that was followed for the year 2020-2021. 10% admissions to be allotted to the children of the staff members working in the applicant college would be within the said 30%."

"70 % of the admissions shall be made from the list of Christian minority students prepared by the State of Tamil Nadu on the basis of the marks obtained by the students in NEET PG examination. The Remaining 30% of the seats shall be filled up by the management by the same procedure that was followed for the academic year 2020-2021," observed the bench.

"The students belonging to States other than the State of Tamil Nadu who have completed their MBBS course in CMC, Vellore shall be entitled to be treated as residents of the State of Tamil Nadu in accordance with the prevalent procedure followed in the State of Tamil Nadu, subject to their entitlement," further read the order.

"We reiterate that this order is restricted only for admissions to undergraduate course for the academic year 2021-2022," clarified the bench.

"The applicant college is also directed to ensure that no unnecessary / additional conditions are imposed for admission to the PG courses for the academic year 2021-22," mentioned the bench as it disposed of the Interlocutary Application.

The petition by CMC would be heard next on March 7, 2022.

To read the case order, click on the link below.

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/cmc-vellore-sc-1-170625.pdf

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