SC allows admission to Homeopathy, Ayurvedic colleges in Maharashtra for 2018-19 without adhering to prescribed NEET Percentile

The Supreme Court today ordered that admissions to first year Homeopathy and Ayurvedic courses in Maharashtra for the academic year 2018-19 can be made without adhering to the minimum percentile in NEET prescribed by the Central government..The judgment was delivered by a Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and MR Shah..The Bench held that admissions can be made based on the eligibility criteria mentioned in the information brochure dated 5th February, 2018..By way of background, the Competent Authority in the Maharashtra State for conducting the Entrance test (Respondent no. 3) had issued an information brochure for NEET UG – 2018 for admission to Health Science courses including Homeopathy..The brochure prescribed certain criteria for being eligible for such admission..The schedule for the entrance examination for admissions for the year 2018-19 was also given in the information brochure. The entrance test was scheduled to be conducted on May 6, 2018 and the results were to be declared by the first week of June, 2018. After the declaration of results of NEET UG – 2018, a notice was issued on June 6, 2018 by Respondent No.3 for online registration..Meanwhile, the eligibility criteria for admission to BHMS Degree Course was altered by Central government by a letter dated June 11, 2018 pursuant to which a notice was issued by Respondent No.3 on June 15.As per the changed criteria in the letter dated 11th June, 2018, a candidate from the open category will be eligible for admission only if he/she secured not less than 50th percentile of the marks in NEET-2018. A candidate belonging to the reserved category should secure not less than 40th percentile of the marks which shall be determined on the basis of highest marks secured in the all India common merit list in NEET- 2018..This came to be challenge by Association of Managements of Homeopathic Medical Colleges of Maharashtra (Appellant)..The Appellant-Association filed a Writ Petition in the High Court of Judicature at Bombay challenging the legality of the Central government’s letter dated June 11, 2018 and notice dated June 15, 2018 of Respondent No.3. The petition was dismissed leading to the appeal in Supreme Court..The Court noted that there has been a slew of judgments and orders passed by various High Cours in this regard..In those judgments, directions were issued in favour of the students permitting admissions on the basis of the marks in the qualifying examination without reference to the marks secured by them in the NEET UG-2018 examination..The Court noted that there is no uniformity in the matter of admission to the 1st year Homeopathy course for the year 2018-19, as securing minimum marks in NEET is not required in some States pursuant to orders of the High Courts..Thus, the Court held that appellants are entitled to the relief of admissions being made without adherence to the minimum percentile prescribed by the letter of June 11 for NEET..“we are of the opinion that the Appellants are entitled to the relief of admissions being made without reference to the letter dated 11th June, 2018 of Respondent No.1 and the consequential notice of Respondent No.3. In other words, the Appellant-Association should be permitted to make admissions to the 1 st year BHMS course for the academic session 2018-19 on the basis of the eligibility criteria mentioned in the information brochure dated 5th February, 2018.”.Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan appeared for the appellant organisation and Senior Advocate Guru Krishna Kumar represented the students. Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand represented Union of India while advocate Nishant Katneshwarkar represented the State of Maharashtra. Advocate Vinay Navare appeared for respondent no. 3..Read the judgment below.