The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Tamil Nadu to conduct postgraduate admissions to the Vellore Christian Medical College (CMC) from the NEET merit list of students belonging to the Christian minority, after counselling is conducted by the State Selection Committee.
A Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao said the order was passed taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the case. "We are of the considered view that for the academic year 2021-2022, students shall be allotted for PG admissions by the State government from the NEET merit list of students belonging to Christian minority, to all the PG seats from the list after counselling is conducted by Selection Committee," the court ordered.
Taking into consideration the urgency of the matter, the court said the case would be listed again in March or April.
The court was hearing a writ petition filed by CMC to quash the Selection Committee's communication that the 2021-2022 admissions for UG and PG courses would be conducted purely on the basis of religious minority (Christian minority) as per NEET scores, following the 50-50 seat-sharing policy. The petition sought non-interference from the State in the admission process.
Appearing for CMC, senior advocate Shyam Divan and advocate Krishna Srinivasan argued that it had been conducting admissions by taking in students only after they had qualified NEET. The students were admitted to CMC after being recommended by the Selection Committee following counselling. This, according to him, showed that admissions were made based on merit. He said that for the past three years, admissions to UG and PG courses had been permitted through common counselling for 74% seats in UG courses and 70% in PG courses. He requested that the practice be allowed to continue.
Additional Advocate General for Tamil Nadu, Amit Anand Tiwari, said the UG and PG courses' admissions were governed by the regulations of 1997 and 2017. Admissions ought to be on the basis of merit in NEET. Mr. Tiwari argued that it was well-settled that government regulations were permissible in admissions to minority institutions, too. He said the selection of candidates from the particular sect (Protestants) of the Christian minority was contrary to law and would not be permitted from 2021-2022.
