The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to allow two Ayurveda course aspirants having low percentile in the NEET examination to participate in the counselling process for admissions to Ayurveda courses. The court declined to give any interim relief on their plea which claimed that it is unfair to subject them to the same entrance examination which is for admission to the MBBS course.
They issued notice to the central government, National Commission for Indian System of Medicine, National Testing Agency, and other respondents on the petition which challenges the law and regulation mandating a common National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for taking admission in Ayurveda courses and asked the concerned authority to disclose the number of seats available in the various courses of Indian system of medicine and the seats filled.
The court was informed that the admission to both AYUSH and MBBS courses is on relative merit and “enough seats” are filled in the courses based on a qualifying percentile which is reduced to a certain extent to fill in case of vacant seats. In the present case, the cut-off percentile of fifty has already been reduced by five, and it was added.
In the petition, the petitioners have challenged the legality, propriety, and validity of Section 14 of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020, Indian medicine Central Council (Minimum Standards of education in Indian Medicine) Amendment Regulation, 2018, and Information Bulletin NEET (UG)-2021 insofar as the same mandates a common NEET for taking admission in Ayurveda in medical institutions governed by the Act.
