CHENNAI: In a major setback to Tamil Nadu state board students, the Madras high court today ruled that 85 per cent reservation for the state board students in undergraduate medical courts are illegal.
The state government had issued a government order on June 22 reserving the seats for the state board students. It was feared that most of the seats might to go CBSE students as the Supreme Court had mandated the admissions can happen only based on the NEET marks.
The GO had also reserved the remaining 15 for other Board students, including the CBSE.
Hearing a petition filed by a CBSE student, Justice K Ravichandra Baabu quashed the GO pointing out that the reservations for state board students are in violation of the Medical Council of Indian rules.
He also held that the reservation indirectly meddled with the object and process of the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) and compromised on merits of selection.
The medical counselling are already delayed in the state due to the legal battles.
The judge directed authorities to prepare a fresh merit list and conduct the counselling for admissions accordingly.
The state government had defended the G.O, saying the policy of the state government was not in favour of NEET, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
More than 50 per cent of the questions in the NEET were based on the CBSE syllabus and hence there was an inequality in the all-India exam, it had contended.
Assailing the G.O, the petitioners had submitted that the Supreme court had clearly stated that when Admission is based on entrance examination NEET, it should make no difference whether the qualifying examination was conducted by the state board or CBSE because no discrimination can be made between
the schools affiliated to both the boards.
As per the earlier schedule, the merit list for medical courses was to be published today and the counselling to start on July 17.
(With Inputs from PTI)