NEET PG - 70% CMC Vellore Seats To Be Filled From Merit List Of Christian Students Prepared By TN Govt: Supreme Court

On Monday, the Supreme Court clarified that admission to 70% of the seats in the Post Graduate courses for the academic year 2021-22 at the Christian Medical College, Vellore ("CMC") shall be made from the list of Christian minority students prepared by the State of Tamil Nadu on the basis of marks obtained in the NEET-PG examination. The remaining 30% seat would be filled by the management of CMC in compliance with the procedure followed in the previous academic year, i.e., 2020-21. A Bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai made it abundantly clear that the said arrangement is meant only for the academic year 2021-2022. "We make it clear that this order is only restrictive for admission in 2021-2022 and shall not be treated as precedent." The Bench was hearing an interlocutory application filed in a writ petition by CMC seeking the quashing of Selection Committee's letter whereby the State of Tamil Nadu sought to impose the state policy of reserving 50% of seats ("state quota") in its favour in the undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses. Upon hearing the Counsels for the parties extensively, vide order dated 19.01.2022, the Supreme Court had directed - "After examining the submissions made on both sides, we are of the considered view that for the Academic Year 2021-2022, students belonging to Christian minority shall be allotted to all PG seats in the petitioner-college by the 2nd Respondent from the NEET merit list." Senior Advocate, Mr. Shyam Diwan appearing for CMC pointed out that over the weekend the State of Tamil Nadu has published a revised list allotting seats to students only from the State of Tamil Nadu. He contended that the same was in the teeth of the Apex Court's order, which required the seats to be allotted by the State from NEET All India merit list. "Now please take up for a moment my additional affidavit and finally…the List which has now been sent to us is Annexure 1. This is the list which was furnished to us on 19th Jan 2022. This has students from all across the country. Once your lordships' order became available to us it was quite obvious that Christian students from this list would be drawn. Unfortunately, they only drew students from the State of Tamil Nadu." His objection to the revised list were threefold: Firstly, it was in contravention of the NEET regulations which required the allotment to be based on the All India merit list;Secondly, it was in the teeth of the order of the Apex Court dated 19.01.2022 and Thirdly, it reduced CMC from a national institute to a provincial institute. "So essentially the All India Merit, which, as we understood, was the direction that you have to go by NEET merit list on an all Indian basis has been completely given a go by and you now only have students from the State of Tamil Nadu who are being counselled so far as CMC is concerned. So my first point is that it is contrary to NEET which has to be AIl India merit. This is contrary to lordships' direction. Our institution is a national institution." Referring to the revised list, Mr. Diwan submitted - "This is the revised list of tentative Christian minority candidates, which has just been uploaded. These students from Sl. No. 1 to 596, which came over the weekend, are all from Tamil Nadu. Everyone they have counselled for the PG group are 100% from Tamil Nadu." Senior Advocate, Ms. Anitha Shenoy appearing for some students of the CMC also argued on the lines of Mr. Diwan. She averred that nativity was never an eligibility criteria, but now by way of the revised list the seats are being allotted to natives of the State. She emphasised that her grievance was that her clients' names were there in the list published on 19.01.2022 on the basis of All India merit list. However, they have not been allotted seats as per the revised list. "Nativity was never a part of the CMC prospectus which was issued on 06.01.2021. It is not an eligibility requirement even for the management quota. Even if one looks at the Govt. prospectus, it is one of the criteria…So, nativity which was never a part of the process, after the admission process has begun is being introduced now for the first time and as a result meritorious students are suffering. There was a list on 19.01.2021, we were there, now with respect to the new list I am out." Apart from nativity, the benefits given to the in-service candidates were also assailed by her. She submitted that the PG candidates who are serving in the State of Tamil Nadu are eligible for reservation in Government seats, but the same benefit has not been extended to management seats. "Second grievance, they have introduced a criteria, which is service incentive criteria for those who have served in the TN Govt. This service incentive was never applicable to...

NEET PG - 70% CMC Vellore Seats To Be Filled From Merit List Of Christian Students Prepared By TN Govt: Supreme Court

Sohini Chowdhury

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