NEET impact: SC fiat on PG medical seats in CMC Vellore

One-liner: In a significant order, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the PG medical seats in Christian Medical College Vellore for the academic session 2022-2023 would be filled from the minority merit list prepared by the Tamil Nadu govt.

Driving the news: A bench found force in the submissions of the Additional Advocate General, appearing for the state, that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Regulations clearly stipulate that medical admissions have to be done from the NEET merit list.

Between the lines: During the hearing, a senior advocate, appearing for the minority institution, argued against the communication of TN seeking seat sharing at 50-50 ratio from two lists prepared by the state and the institution respectively for the admissions in PG courses.

• The institution not only argued that seat-sharing methodology, as communicated by the state govt, be disallowed, but also sought approval for its own method of selecting students

Need to know: It said students from over 23 zonal regions are admitted from lists sent by various Protestant Churches/ Christian organisations.

• Referring to the judgment, the counsel for Tamil Nadu said that the states are required to maintain a merit list of minority students

On the other side: He also demonstrated from the list of admitted students that several of them were given the admissions in the institution after bypassing the students who were higher in the minority merit list prepared by TN.

CMC seeks interim relief: The CMC, in its plea, has also sought an interim relief that it be allowed to continue with the old method of selection as was being done for the last three years for the PG admissions in the current year.

SC refuses to grant relief: The apex court refused to grant the relief and directed that the entire 100% PG seats for academic session 2022-2023 are to be filled through the minority merit list prepared by Tamil Nadu. 

Source: PTI