A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir, who retired on Thursday, held that the MCI notification was ultra vires of the Constitution by a 2:1 verdict. While the CJI and Justice Vikramjit Sen, in a majority verdict, said the MCI is not empowered to prescribe all-India medical entrance tests, Justice A.R. Dave dissented, saying NEET is legal, practical and a boon for students aspiring to join the medical profession.
The verdict came on 115 petitions challenging the February 2012 notification of the MCI on NEET for admission to MBBS and post-graduate medical courses conducted in colleges across India.
The majority verdict said the common test seems “attractive” but it is “fraught with difficulties” and would “perpetuate” the divide between urban and rural students in the name of giving credit to merit.
It quashed the notifications issued by the MCI and the Dental Council Of India (DCI) by which admissions to MBBS, BDS and post-graduate courses in medical colleges were to be made solely on the basis of NEET, and states and privately-run institutions were prevented from conducting any separate examination.
Justice Dave said NEET was not only legal but practical and needed by society to ensure more transparency and less hardship for students eager to join the medical profession.
“If only one examination in the country is conducted and admissions are given on the basis of the result of the said examination, in my opinion, unscrupulous and money-minded businessmen operating in the field of education would be constrained to stop their corrupt practices and it would help a lot, not only the deserving students but also the nation, in bringing down the level of corruption,” he said.
The majority verdict said that enforcing a common entrance test would have “the effect of denuding the state and private institutions, both aided and unaided, some enjoying the protection of Article 30 (right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions), of their powers to admit students in the MBBS, BDS and post-graduate courses conducted by them”.