SC clears filling up seats in BHMS, BAMS courses

The Supreme Court has allowed admission to vacant seats in BHMS and BAMS courses on the basis of minimum marks obtained by candidates in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Examination -UG 2018.

“A candidate who has secured minimum marks in the NEET UG-2018 shall be eligible for admission to the 1st year BHMS course for the academic year 2018-19,” a bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and M R Shah said.

On a petition filed by Association of Management of Homeopathic Medical Colleges of Maharashtra, the top court said it was not expressing any opinion on the introduction of the minimum percentile as eligibility criteria in the NEET examination.

The association was aggrieved with the introduction of the requirement of 50 percentile for open category and 40 percentile for reserved category through a notice issued by the Union government, that resulted in several seats remaining vacant.

It contended that according to the Central Council of Homoeopathy (Degree Course) BHMS Regulations, 1983, a candidate should have passed the 10+2 or other equivalent examination after a period of 12 years’ study with the last two years of study comprising of Physics, Chemistry and Biology for admission to 1st-year BHMS course.

The entrance test was scheduled to be conducted on May 6, 2018 and the results were to be declared by the first week of June 2018. However, the eligibility criteria for admission to BHMS degree course was altered subsequently, introducing the percentile of marks.

The government's counsel submitted that the minimum of 50th percentile in NEET was revised to 35th percentile on the basis of the representation made on behalf of the appellants.

The court noted that there was no uniformity in the matter of admission to the 1st year BHMS course for the year 2018-19, as securing minimum marks in NEET was not required in some states pursuant to orders of the High Courts of Patna, Karnataka, Madras, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, Allahabad and Kolkata, the appellants were entitled to the relief of admissions.

It can be on the basis of the eligibility criteria mentioned in the information brochure issued on February 5, 2018, the court said.

Holding that the order should not be treated as a precedent, the court directed the appellants to complete the process of admissions by February 15, 2019 and hold extra classes for students to comply with the requirements of minimum working days. The court granted similar relief to the Ayurvedic medical colleges.