AGENCY
New Delhi: The interest of lakhs of aspiring medical students on Thursday weighed in the mind of the Supreme Court as it rejected submissions seeking a stay on the Ordinance allowing states to hold their separate entrance tests besides NEET for 2016-17, saying half of them have already conducted these examinations.
A bench headed by Justice A R Dave reacted sharply to the to the contention of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that it should not take the Ordinance to its “ego” as it pertains to the welfare of students who have prepared for months for various state medical examinations.
“Those states which have held examinations before the Ordinance and after our order, is patently bad. It will be a total mess. Students’ future are at stake and their interests need to be considered. They are our children,” the bench, also comprising Justices A K Goel and Shiva Kirti Singh, said.
The court, which cast “doubt” on the Ordinance, said it was not staying it because the “interest of lakhs of students were involved” and any interference at this stage would create “chaos” as more than 50 per cent states have already held their separate tests.
“It is disturbing and not proper for the government to bring an Ordinance allowing states to hold their own tests despite our orders… Prima facie, we find that the validity of the ordinance is in doubt,” the bench said while agreeing to expedite the hearing in the matter.
It also dismissed the contention for centralised counselling of successful candidates of various entrance tests, saying “50 per cent states have conducted their tests.”
Rohatgi strongly opposed the challenge to the Ordinance, saying there was “nothing wrong” with it and the government was “well within its plenary right” to come up with it.
But the court said “this year you have exempted states from NEET. This is contrary and in violation to our orders.
Prima facie it is not according to our judgement. Somehow this was not warranted. It is not good for students. There must be some uniformity. Minimum standards have to be set up.”
The AG replied “where is the question of blame? The date of entrance exams by states is declared much in advance.
Please do not take this as ‘ego’,” AG said.
To this, the court said “We don’t have any ego. Don’t think on that line. Please, don’t take an adversarial stand.” PTI
