Supreme Court Relief to AYUSH Students Admitted without NEET, Allows to Retain Degrees
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: Granting relief to some of the undergraduate AYUSH students, who were not admitted through the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examination, the Supreme Court has allowed them to retain their degrees.
Even though the Apex Court acknowledged that these students had not been admitted through the NEET-UG exam and therefore, their admissions were not valid, it also observed that withholding the exam results of these students would cause "immense hardship" to the students, who have already completed their courses.
"By now, the petitioners have completed their AYUSH course for which they were granted admission. It would therefore, be futile to withhold their results," noted the top court bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice K Vinod Chandran.
"It is true that admission to candidates who had not appeared in NEET examination could not have been given by the College, yet as of now these students have completed their course and to withhold the exam results or their Degree will cause immense hardship to them," it further observed.
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These directions were issued by the Supreme Court while considering the pleas filed by the students of under-graduate AYUSH courses. Admittedly, these petitioners obtained admission to the said courses without appearing in the NEET UG 2019 examination. They argued that they did not know that they were required to appear in the NEET UG 2019 examination to seek admission to the said courses.
Their admissions were questioned and the petitioners filed pleas before the High Court where the Single Judge allowed admission of non-NEET students in AYUSH courses on the ground that there had not been proper publication of the applicability of NEET UG 2019 for admission to such AYUSH courses.
Challenging this order, the Union Government approached the Division Bench of the High Court at Calcutta, which set aside the orders passed by the Single Judge allowing admission of non-NEET students. The Division Bench, relying upon the details supplied by the Government via an affidavit, observed that pursuant to the notice published in newspapers on 07.11.2018 requiring candidates to qualify NEET in order to gain admission in AYUSH UG-courses, other candidates had appeared in NEET and ultimately were admitted to AYUSH UG courses. Therefore, the Division Bench rejected the contention of petitioners that due to the inadequate notice, they were prevented from participating in NEET UG 2019.
Consequently, the students approached the top court bench, which noted that the only question that required adjudication was whether the petitioners were eligible for admission based on the selection made by the concerned college based on merit since the petitioners did not appear in the NEET UG 2019 exam.
Meanwhile, back on 19.04.2021, the Apex Court had passed an order, permitting the petitioners to take 1st semester examination and had mentioned that their results would not be announced till further orders.
The Apex Court bench also noted that by now the petitioners had completed their AYUSH courses for which they were granted admission and therefore, it would be futile to withhold their results.
Accordingly, the Court vacated the order dated 19.04.2021 while noting that withholding the petitioners' results at this stage would cause immense hardships to them.
"With these observations, the special leave petitions are disposed of," ordered the Court.
To view the order, click on the link below:
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/ebtesham-khatoon-versus-union-of-india-ors-275141.pdf
