NEET row: Single judge order quashing GO allowing 85% quota for state board students upheld by Madras HC

The Government Order providing 85 per cent reservation to State Board students for MBBS and BDS courses failed to cut ice yet again with the court. A division bench of the Madras High Court on Monday dismissed an appeal moved by the State and others against a single judge’s order, which quashed the said GO.

Delivering the verdict, the division bench noted, “When once the relative ranking of merit is determined at NEET, a further classification of the qualified candidates as attempted now meanders into an artificial one.” The division bench comprising Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao and Justice M Dhandapani, said, “We find no difficulty whatsoever in arriving at the conclusion that the classification attempted by the impugned policy decision is an unrealistic and artificial one lacking any nexus to the object sought to be achieved.”

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“When once the students drawn both from the Tamil Nadu State Board and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and other Boards have taken the NEET examination, all of them have an equal and fair opportunity to compete against each other and establish their relative merit. When once this objective had already been achieved, the present classification does not bear any further relationship to the object sought to be achieved,” the bench said.

Also noting that the factual analysis of this case has brought forth the unequal distribution and nonavailability of the infrastructural facilities in equal measure across the entire State, the bench blamed it on the lack of supervision on the instructors, who were entrusted with the task of teaching 10 + 2 students in the Government schools.

Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao, who penned the judgment, also directed the State to take all necessary steps expeditiously to fill the seats in MBBS/BDS courses before the August 31 deadline expires.