Supreme Court imposes Rs 10 crore penalty on 11 Rajasthan colleges for illegally lowering admission percentile

New Delhi: The Supreme Court imposed Rs 10 crore penalty on 11 Colleges in Rajasthan for admitting students to BDS course in breach of 2007 regulations, saying admissions to MBBS and BDS courses in all government and private medical colleges are to be undertaken solely on the basis of NEET merit.

A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi held that the colleges committed blatant illegality and willful violation of the 2007 Regulations, while admitting students beyond 10+5 percentile, thus warranting strict punitive action.

Emphasising all admissions to medical institutions must strictly conform to the standards and regulations prescribed for the conduct of NEET, so as to safeguard the primacy of merit, the court did not agree to the single and division bench judgments of the High Court, which treated the admissions as lawful and sustainable.

It was found that the admissions were made by lowering of the minimum percentile as prescribed for the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test UG examinations.

As per the revised BDS Course Regulations, 2007, the court noted, the minimum qualifying percentile for admission to the BDS course is 50th percentile in NEET for 45 candidates in the unreserved category, 40th percentile for SC/ST/OBC candidates and 45th percentile for candidates with locomotory disability of the lower limbs.

However, the minimum qualifying percentile for NEET was lowered by the State of Rajasthan by 10 percentile and subsequently, by an additional 5 percentile.

Referring to regulations, the court emphasised the power to undertake such a reduction in the qualifying percentile is only vested in the central government, to be exercised in consultation with the Dental Council of India.

But the colleges granted admissions to students from the NEET merit list relying solely on their 10+2 scores, which resulted in students with even zero and negative scores.

Holding that such admissions were wholly untenable and unlawful and amounted to making a mockery of the rules and regulations, the court alsodirected the Rajasthan government to deposit a sum of Rs 10 lakh with the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority within a period of eight weeks.

The court, however, regularised admission of students of academic year 2016-17 for they had already completed the course and were either in practice or pursuing PG course.

The bench directed all of them to give an unconditional undertaking that they would render their pro-bono services in Rajasthan during their entire lifetime in exceptional circumstances involving natural calamities, man-made disasters/accidents, health emergencies comprising epidemics, pandemics, disease outbreaks or public health crises for a cumulative period of two years.

Advocate Rishabh Sancheti, who represented Siddhant Mahajan, lead petitioner, said, "This is a landmark judgment where the Supreme Court has invoked its plenary power under Art 142 to do complete justice. It saved the careers and lives of hundreds of students, and also directed for unprecedented costs of 100 crore plus, which will be used under monitoring of a 5 judges Committee for Nari Niketans, Old Age Homes and Child Care Institutions in the State of Rajasthan".