Court: NEET mandatory to pursue AYUSH courses

Saurabh Malik

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) was mandatory for obtaining admissions to AYUSH undergraduate courses. The court also ruled that all admissions made to the contrary were illegal.

The ruling by Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and first puisne Justice Rajiv Sharma came on 10 petitions filed by the Federation of Private Self-Financed Ayurvedic Colleges Association, Punjab, against the Centre and other respondents. The private health science educational institutions were aggrieved by the act of the respondents in prescribing passing of NEET as a necessary condition for admission to BAMS/BHMS/BUMS.

The petitioners had challenged the constitutional validity of notification dated December 7, 2018, amending the Indian Medicine Central Council (Minimum Standard of Education in Indian Medicine) Regulations, 1986. Letters issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) were also challenged.

Counsel for the petitioners had contended that the notification amending the regulations by inserting a clause, which provided for holding NEET — a uniform entrance examination for all medical institutions at the undergraduate level, was beyond the rule making power conferred by the Indian Medical Central Council Act, 1970.

They added admissions to BAMS and BUMS courses were required to be allowed on the basis of the marks obtained in Class XII or at best entrance test to be conducted by the respective states and not on the basis of the NEET.

Haryana was represented by Additional Advocate-General Deepak Balyan and Punjab by Additional Advocate-General Suveer Sheokand. The Bench asserted it did not find any illegality in Punjab, Haryana and respondent-universities’ act of making admissions to the courses concerned on the basisof separate merit lists forthe two states prepared on the basis of NEET.

Refusing to interfere, the Bench added the Centre apparently had the sole power to legislate on coordination and determination of standards in institutions of higher education or research.