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Orders reserved on 85 per cent quota for state board students in medical seats
With medical aspirants having their fingers crossed as to whether the Government Order (GO), which reserved 85 per cent of medical seats for state board students and 15 per cent seats to other boards including CBSE, will survive legal scrutiny, the Madras High Court on Tuesday reserved its orders on a plea seeking to quash the GO.
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Justice K Ravichandra Babu, before whom arguments transpired through the day, also ordered status quo until the final order is delivered. Advocate General R Muthukumaraswamy submitted that the state as a matter of policy is against NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) and the two bills passed seeking exemption from NEET for both UG and PG medical admission is awaiting President’s assent.
Also, noting that NEET has triggered an unlevel playing field between state board and CBSE students, he said out of the 4.30 lakh students who studied under state board as many as 84,000 students have appeared for NEET, while out of the 4,000 who studied under Central Board, a mere 2,000 students had appeared. Moreover, over 50 per cent of questions were based on CBSE syllabus and all the 250 schools run by the CBSE are mostly located in urban areas.
The advocate general also submitted that 85 per cent reservation for state board students will merely result in about 2,000 students out of the 84,000 students who had taken NEET obtain medical seats, while under the CBSE as many as 520 students will get their chance.
The petitioner Darnish Kumar represented by his parents and two others had challenged the June 22 GO citing the Supreme Court ruling that when admission is based on NEET, it should make no difference whether the qualifying examination is conducted by the state board or CBSE.
It was also argued that there should be no discrimination between those who have qualified Class 12 examinations from schools within Tamil Nadu and NEET results alone should be considered against all available seats in MBBS and BDS courses. As per the schedule, the merit list is set to be published on July 14 and the counselling to take place on July 17.
Reddy’s plea for relaxation on bail conditions adjourned
Even as reports have emerged about mining baron Sekar Reddy fearing threat to his life, the Madras High Court on Tuesday adjourned his petition seeking to relax his bail conditions. Justice S Bhaskaran, before whom the plea came up for hearing, heeded to the request made by Sekar Reddy’s counsel to adjourn the hearing owing to the life threat faced by his client. Sekar Reddy’s counsel on showing a newspaper report submitted that his client is facing life threat and hence sought the plea adjourned for the time being.
‘Keep an MBBS seat vacant for physically challenged’
The Madras High Court, coming to the rescue of a physically challenged medical aspirant, has directed the Selection Committee and the Directorate of Medical Education to keep a seat vacant in the MBBS Course for 2017-18 until July 25.
Mathumitha (18) of Kadagathur Village in Dharmapuri District, who suffered electrocution in 2010 and sustained upper limb disability to an extent of 55 per cent, wrote the NEET exam. However, on realising that certain clauses in the prospectus summarily excluded candidates with upper limb disability for admission, moved the court submitting that MBBS course is a common degree upon which several specialised PG courses pertaining to clinical and non-clinical can be pursued. She noted that candidates, who have completed clinical courses (medicine and surgery categories) alone can practise and treat the patients while non-clinical medical experts can indulge in research and laboratory oriented jobs with the designations of doctors. Pointing out that under such circumstances, candidates like her with upper limb disabilities do not deserve any blanket denial of admission, she said there are non-clinical courses like microbiology, pathology, pharmacology and community medicines, which physically challenged persons can pursue. “Therefore, the blanket ban on admission to MBBS course for candidates with upper limb disability is irrational, arbitrary and discriminatory and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution,” the petitioner contended. Justice K Ravichandra Babu, before whom the plea came up, besides directing the government to keep a seat vacant for the sake of the petitioner issued notice to special government pleader A Kumar returnable by July 25.
Tender for egg supply challenged
The Madras High Court while allowing the government to proceed with the tender process for the supply of 52 lakh eggs meant for children and students has put in a check that the same shall be confirmed subject to the outcome of the writ petition which has challenged certain conditions stipulated in the tender.
Justice M Duraiswamy, who passed interim orders on the plea on Tuesday, also issued notice to special government pleader Balamurugan on behalf of Secretary, Social Welfare Nutritious Meal Programme Department and STS Moorty, additional advocate general on behalf of Department of Integrated Child Development Services Scheme. They have been directed to file their counter by July 25. The petitioner K Ilayaraja, proprietor, Hi-Tech Fisheries Trading Company, Namakkal, had contended that the tender notice dated June 14 has stipulated several conditions with a view to eliminating all other eligible persons from participating in the tender process in a bid to favour the persons chosen by them. The petitioner further noted that the officials concerned have permitted the tenderers, who are engaged in the business of supplying eggs with Agmark marking for any one year during the preceding three years. Similarly, the tenderer should be currently engaged in supplying eggs or any other similar food materials to the state/Central government departments and should have a minimum of seven years’ experience in the said contract. Pointing out that a cumulative reading of the conditions would expose the fact that no new tenderers would be allowed to participate in the process, the petitioner said the strange conditions incorporated in the tender would show that the same have been tailor made to benefit a particular person or group of persons.
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