Admission to all medical courses in the country, even those run by minority and private organisations, will be on the basis of NEET scores, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday. The top court made it clear that the rights of minority organisations would not be affected by the use of a common entrance test for prospective medical students.
“There is no violation of rights of minority institutions to come under NEET. At present, education is devoid of its real character of charity; it has become a commodity,” a three-member bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Vineet Saran and MR Shah said.
“NEET (National Eligibility/Entrance Test) was introduced to wipe out corruption and other evils in the system and it is in the national interest. There are still several loopholes in the admission process that need to be plugged,” the court added.
Hitting out at “unscrupulous practices adopted by private colleges”, who refused to admit students sponsored by a centralised counselling panel, the court stressed that all minority and private institutions must admit students based on NEET scores.
“Regulatory measures in NEET in no way interfere with the rights of religious or linguistic institutions,” the court ruled.
Minority institutions had challenged the admission process under NEET, arguing it affected the rights of minority unaided private professional institutions.
They also argued that minority institutions must be allowed to have a separate admission exam – over and above NEET. The court rejected both views.
“It is not possible to prescribe further examination over and above NEET. That cannot be said to be workable. No exemption can be granted from NEET, considering the objective with which it has been introduced,” the court ruled.
However, the court also cautioned that much more needed to be done to identify and curtail “unscrupulous practices”.
“To weed out evils from the system, which were eating away fairness in admission process, defeating merit and aspiration of the common incumbent with no means, the State has the right to frame regulatory regime for aided/ unaided minority/ private institutions,” the court said.
