Minimum Marks Relaxation for Medical admissions: Plea in Supreme Court

New Delhi: Alleging that the state government and the centre are not providing minimum marks relaxation to the dental colleges in Rajasthan, even though it is their statutory right to fill up the vacant medical/dental seats, the Federation of Private Medical and Dental Colleges of Rajasthan have knocked the doors of the Supreme Court urging the authorities to look into the matter.

The organization has filed a petition against the said non-compliance of counselling and admission process for admissions to nearly 500 vacant seats to various dental colleges of the state.

While pointing out that Regulation 2(5) of the Dentist Act, 1948 allows the authorities to make suitable relaxations in the minimum marks required for admission to BDS courses, the Federation of Private Medical and Dental Colleges of Rajasthan, alleged that the authorities are "ignoring their statutorily provided duty" to modify these cut-off scores.

The petition pointed out that a similar scenario in the year 2016, the government had reduced the minimum required NEET percentile to the extent of 15 percentile, so as to fill the vacant BDS seats across the Dental colleges of Rajasthan.

This time around, the Dental Council of India (DCI) had also recommended a reduction of minimum NEET percentile by 10 percentile. However, while the state government withdrew its orders due to a dispute on its competency to issue such order, the DCI's suggestion was rejected by the Centre, the petition mentioned. quotes a report by legal daily Livelaw

The Centre had rejected DCI's suggestion on the ground that there was a sufficient number of eligible students to fill the vacant seats for the BDS course. However, the petition stated an RTI application revealed that around 7000 BDS seats have been vacant in the course for the academic year 2016-17.

"…the arbitrary, perverse and irrational inaction of a statutorily conferred duty has gravely prejudiced the academic future and institutional survival of the stakeholders. It is respectfully submitted that if the Respondent Authorities continue with their prolonged inaction then the Petitioner Federation would have to suffer unmitigated hardships. This would also adversely impact the medical/ dental infrastructure of the State of Rajasthan, as well as the Union of India, which is suffering from a huge shortfall of skilled doctors/dentists and a loss of nearly 500 dentists in AY 2018-19, would be extremely harsh."

Besides asking for marks relaxation, the petition also sought the court intervention to extend the BDS admission process, beyond the stipulated dates so that the vacant seats could be fulfilled.

Therefore, pointing out that the admission for the BDS Course concludes on 15 September, the petitioner has demanded the immediate intervention of the Apex Court to look into the matter for the betterment of the aspiring medical students.

Considering the issue, the Supreme Court bench comprising honourable Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud, has agreed to hear the organisation's plea