Challenge to NEET ordinance will be heard by Anil Dave J. on July 7

The case challenging the ordinance passed by the Central government on the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) will be heard by a Bench presided by Justice Anil R Dave..The matter came up for hearing today before a Bench presided by Chief Justice TS Thakur. The court said that the matter would be heard by the Bench presided by Justice Anil R Dave and posted it for July 7..The petitioners had challenged the NEET ordinance, which exempts government colleges and government seats in private colleges from the ambit of NEET this year..On December 21, 2010 the NEET was first notified by the Medical Council of India. Through two MCI notifications, amendments were made to the “Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997” and “Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000”..The Dental Council of India followed suit and published similar notifications bringing the BDS and MDS courses under the ambit of NEET..Subsequently, a number of minority institutions, including the Christian Medical College Vellore, challenged the notifications as unconstitutional. Represented by senior counsel including Harish Salve, Rajiv Dhawan, K Parasaran, KK Venugopal, and R Venkataramani, their contention was that the amendments “stifled and stultified” the fundamental rights of minority unaided institutions.The 3-judge Bench presided by then Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir and comprising Justices Anil R Dave and Vikramajit Sen pronounced its judgment. The judgment was not unanimous – Chief Justice Kabir wrote the majority opinion scrapping NEET and Justice Vikramajit Sen concurred with this majority opinion..Justice Anil R Dave, however, dissented and held in favour of NEET and against private medical colleges..Read this article for a detailed timeline on the NEET matter.