The Madras High Court today reserved order on a batch of writ petitions and an appeal filed in connection with admissions to MBBS course and directed authorities that no allotment of seats shall be made till the ruling is pronounced by it.
A division bench, comprising Justice Sathish K. Agnihotri and Justice M. Venugopal, however, permitted the authorities to continue the counselling process.
The HC Registry today transferred to the bench all the writ petitions pending before a single judge as per its earlier orders. The bench told the respective counsel to submit their return arguments, if any, by tomorrow.
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Counsel Raghavachari, appearing on behalf of the students for the present year, said when government abolished improvement and Common Entrance tests, it had stated that plus two exams would be treated as entrance exam for admission in professional courses.
"Abolition of entrance exam is to substitute the plus two exam as a qualifying one for entrance to professional courses which is limited only to the respective academic year," he said.
Advocate General A.L. Somayaji, on behalf of government, submitted that irrespective of the year of examination those who passed the qualifying exam were eligible and the selection is based purely on the marks they have obtained.
Arguments that the exam was tough cannot be considered because the syllabus and the Board which conducts the examination are the same.
In the counter submitted by Additional Director and Director of Medical Education, it was submitted that there was no rule or guidelines issued by Medical Council of India or by any other competent authority preventing previous year students applying for admission to MBBS course along with the current year students.
Any judicial review or interference in the educational matters "is very limited and interference is permissible only if there is any violation of any enactment, statutory rules or regulations or if it is found to be malafide or arbitrary."
It said that as per Supreme Court order, the first round of counselling and admissions for the present academic year shall be completed by June 25 and last date of joining the allotted colleges fixed on July 3.
For 2015-16 MBBS admissions, 31,525 eligible applications were received, of which only 4,679 belong to previous year students. Of 2,257 MBBS seats available in government medical colleges, 1,709 will go to 2014-15 students whereas only 548 will go to the students of earlier year batches, which amounts only to 24 per cent of total seats.
