The Supreme Court in a recent verdict rejected a minority institution’s plea and maintained that the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) did not infringe upon their rights under Articles 29(1) and 30 of the Constitution. The SC on Wednesday made an important verdict regarding NEET for medical aspirants wanting to enroll themselves in under-graduate and post-graduate medical courses in the country.
“To weed out evils from the system, which were eating away fairness in the admission process, defeating merit and aspiration of the common incumbent,” the court noted and maintained that the state had the right to frame a regulatory standard for aided or unaided or minority or private institution. It also said that the common entrance examination intends to bring education within the “realms of charity”, a character that it had lost.
The bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Vineet Saran, and MR Shah was hearing a batch of writ petitions titled Christian Medical College, Vellore vs Union of India, filed originally in 2012. The petitions had challenged the constitutional validity of the entrance examination notifications issued by the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India.
The court rejected the argument that the exam infringed upon the right to freedom of trade and business of educational institutions under Article 19(1)(g) and said that the uniform entrance test is required to check the “maladies” that have crept into the medical education system like capitation fee taken to admit students with lower merit.
“The quality of medical education is imperative to subserve the national interest, and the merit cannot be compromised", the bench said according to reports. “The regulatory measures are intended for the proper functioning of institutions and to ensure the standard of education is maintained and that does not fall low under the guise of an exclusive right of management to the extent of maladministration,” it added.